Military Academy: On Temporary Hiatus
by Charlotte-xoxo
Summary: Bella, Alice and Rosalie have a plan: Enroll in a British Military Academy to bag a hot soldier. The Problem: Fraternization is forbidden. The Solution: Seduce a officer, at any cost. Slightly OOC characters and some military structures. M for a reason.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So… I have had this idea in my head for a really long time, and I finally have some time to write it down. As far as I can tell it is an original idea, which is quite weird considering how hot some soldiers are. Imagine Edward, Emmett, Jasper and Carlisle in uniform. Sigh! Anyway… read, review, enjoy. Thanks.**

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing but my plot.**

**Warning: This story is rated M/NC-17 for a reason. It will get increasingly lemony as the plot progresses. Don't read if you aren't that kind of person. Thank you.**

**PS. Logical I know that this is impossible, but just pretend that British and American forces can mix. Its more fun that way.**

I shoved hard with my elbow and managed to spread the crowd in front of me just enough to make space for us to get through. Rosalie and Alice, my two best friends since I don't know when, sidled through behind me into the gap I had made and we spread out to occupy as much space as possible.

We were now right at the front, with a perfect view of the military parade making its way leisurely down the centre of Main Street, flags and banners flying high in the light breeze. I thought I could just about make out a bugle in the background too, but I couldn't be sure. I wasn't interested in that though, there was only one reason that the three of us had given up our Saturday to drive all the way down here from Forks.

The British Army was on the move.

"Oh my God!" Rosalie breathed, her eyes fixed on the muscular physique of the man passing in front of us. "That guy is so hot." Then she smirked cheekily as the man turned his head slightly in our direction and winked at Rose. He was about twenty years old, and so good looking it should have been a crime. Unfortunately, he only seemed to have eyes for Rose, the other two of us would never hope to reach her level of beauty.

That had been annoying at the start of our friendship, a ridiculously long time ago in high school, when boys would flirt with me just to get a shot with her. I had blamed it on her all the time, before finally realizing one day that it wasn't actually her fault. Now, as a mature nineteen year old, I just contented myself with the middle hotness band of guys, and dreamed at night about the ones who were out of my league.

"I agree," I groaned, resting my arm on her shoulder. "They're all hot."

"I'd second that," said Alice firmly, unable to tear her eyes away from the rows and rows of beautiful, foreign men before us. "I can't believe that they are all totally off limits." The British Army had been taking a tour of the American facilities in this part of the country and we had been determined to come to watch them before they left for England. Seattle was their last parade so we had all dragged ourselves out of bed at five in the morning to see them off.

"Yeah, that sucks," I enthused, staring down at my fist dejectedly. It was a total shame that they couldn't even flirt with us before they left. The three of us would have given a couple of the officers a night that they would never forget. The only problem was that they were forbidden from fraternizing.

I turned my head back up to the parade, and then sighed again. The soldiers had almost all passed us now, as we stood near the front of the seething crowd, but we were still shamelessly ogling the asses of the men marching away from us down towards midtown.

"They're not completely off limits," Alice chirped sorrowfully, sounding almost jealous in her tone, and we all nodded stoically. Then, what she said caught up with me and I stopped nodding like an idiot.

"Huh," I said, tipping my head to the side and frowning at her. "What do you mean?"

"I _mean_," explained Alice, sounding extremely annoyed at having to explain herself to us. Clearly she thought that we should understand where she was coming from, but I just couldn't see it. "The soldiers are only off limits to us, to civilians. I bet if we were officers, hot British, female officers that were waiting for them when they got back home, we could get all of the fit, military ass we wanted."

"Hmm, yeah, that would be so cool." I sighed and we all turned away from the road, heading back towards Alice's Porchse which was parked across the street. I could tell that they all felt just as depressed as I did now that it was all over, but no one said anything; we all knew instinctively what each other was thinking, we were that close friends. "It's a shame we aren't their… co-workers, huh?" I giggled, and nudged Rosalie playfully. She laughed with me, which set Alice off, and we were all cackling uncontrollably by the time we climbed into the car. Then we all drifted off into our own little fantasies about what I had just said.

_Watching out of the window as a team of shirtless __officers did training exercises, their muscles rippling and sweat pouring down their backs. Good God! That would be absolute heaven. Then afterwards, we would have to share showers together, to conserve water. They would be so courteous towards me, offering to help me scrub myself down. Gah!_

We drove insanely fast, well over the speed limit, all the way back to Forks from the parade in Seattle so I was broken out of my extremely pleasant day dream before it had a chance to get good, and then we stopped of at Rose's house to drop her home. Although I was in a slight hurry, due to my dad actually being home for dinner for once, Rosalie persuaded us to come in for a minute. I could see from her expression that she had one of her crazy plans, so I agreed if only to stop her from doing something we would all regret.

"OK, so what are you thinking Rose?" Alice said, before I had a chance to ask the same thing.

"Well…," Rosalie said thoughtfully. "You know that we said it was a shame we couldn't have a chance with guys like that." She looked pensive and somewhat serious, yet mischievous at the same time. I had a feeling that I might like this plan more than the last one.

About three months ago she had finally had enough of me trying to save myself for the right person, had conspired with Alice to get me completely sloshed, and then had locked me in a bedroom with Mike Newton for an entire night. Needless to say that, as unimpressed as I had been the next day, the plan had been a success. I was a virgin no longer and Newton hadn't been all that bad. The only problem was that now, ever since that night, he had been following me around like a lost puppy. Cute he may be, but definitely not wanted attention from my end.

I still hadn't quite forgiven Rosalie for that one, so I was a little apprehensive about this new plan. "Yes," I urged, wanting to hear more in spite of myself.

"OK. So, maybe it might not be as impossible as we think." She had fired up her laptop whilst we had been talking and now drew up an unfamiliar website. "I remembered, whilst we were driving home, seeing an advert somewhere for this." With a flourish she tapped the enter key, before pushing the laptop toward me eagerly. I looked down and with a frown I started to read it aloud for both my own and Alice's benefit, because she had migrated over to the sofa on the other side of the room.

"Wanted: Cadets from outside of the United Kingdom. The MoD…" I looked up at Rose, silently asking her what the letters stood for.

"It means, the Ministry of Defense." I nodded and continued to read.

"The MoD is currently restructuring the Armed Forces in Britain to conform to international law. As such, we will soon be welcoming foreign students to enlist in the British Army training program, in order to provide integration and equality with our allies in arms. Encouraged nationalities include those from Canada, the United States and Great Britain." I finished at the bottom of the page and looked back up at Rosalie, who was practically bouncing with excitement. "I don't get it," I explained honestly. "What are you trying to say?"

"She is trying to say," squealed Alice, as she flew across the room like a hurricane on crack. "We can totally sign up for this training program, then meet some gorgeous British guys and hook up with them." With that, everything in my brain clicked into place and I started squealing and shrieking manically along with the two of them.

Five minutes later we were scouring the site, searching for photos of hot guys and printing out application forms, and chattering excitably about what it would be like. I don't think I have ever seen either of my best friends look quite that excited before, I knew I certainly never had been. Once we had gone our separate ways, I didn't sleep a wink that night, staying up instead to fantasize about England and gorgeous guys until my father woke up the next morning.

At breakfast I broke the news gently to Charlie, my virtually non-existent dad as he had never seemed to be there since he and my mom had split up, and he hadn't seemed to upset about it. He had agreed after only minimal protest to let me go, just as long as I 'knew what I was getting myself in for'. I assured him that I was absolutely sure, hurried out of the house after getting him to sign my form, and met up with the others at the post office in the centre of Forks.

We all hugged furiously for luck before posting the three sets of forms to London, praying silently that we would all be accepted. It would suck if one of us went and the others didn't. Hopefully, if all went well we would be posted to a dorm together or at least near to one another. There was no doubt in our minds that this was going to be the best forty-two weeks of our lives.

Little did we know of the horror we were about to release into our lives. In our eagerness to sign up, we had overlooked the rules and guidelines pages of the website. One rule in particular would be sure to throw up some issues with our genius plan. We were in for a shock!

**AN: Love it or hate it, I don't mind as long as you review. Thanks.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: One thing before you start reading. Most people probably wouldn't notice it but someone will so I'd better say it now… I said in the first chapter that the training was ****forty-two weeks. I checked and it is actually forty-four weeks. Now I'm twisting a bit of the military protocol as it is, letting Americans into the British military (it does happen in some allied countries though), but I really want to be as accurate as I can. From now on it will be forty-four weeks, promise.**

**Sorry if I bored you with my little rant there, I'll stop… enjoy.**

RECAP: Little did we know of the horror we were about to release into our lives. In our eagerness to sign up, we had overlooked the rules and guidelines pages of the website. One rule in particular would be sure to throw up some issues with our genius plan. We were in for a shock!

APOV

"I'm going to miss you so much baby," my mom sobbed as she hugged me goodbye, trying her very hardest to squeeze my petite form to death. "Write me as soon as you get there, OK?" I struggled in her arms, wriggling uncomfortably, forcing her to let me go.

"God mom," I groaned, feeling my ribs tenderly for signs of damage. "You have to let me go. I'll be fine." With that, I pulled out my compact from my hot, new Gucci travel purse and flipped it open, examining my hair. I knew that I was being vacuous, but I wanted to make the best impression with all of the hot soldiers, so I had gotten up at four o'clock that morning to wash and style my short hair to perfection. It was fixed in cute little pin curls, framing my face perfectly, and I wasn't about to let my mother's overenthusiastic hug mess up four hours of primping.

Happy that it still looked perfect, I snapped the compact shut and put it away before turning to the man to my mom's left. My dad was tall, slightly chubby, and the complete polar opposite of my mom and I, who are so short it's ridiculous, yet he was the closest person to me in the world. I glanced at his round, always jolly face and saw with a twinge of pain that he was crying, the tears streaming down his face as he watched me say goodbye to my mom.

"Daddy, please don't cry," I begged, furiously dabbing at my own eyes to prevent myself from falling apart. "You are coming to visit us in a couple of weeks, aren't you?" I smiled sadly up at him, and he nodded.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he murmured, before pulling me into a tight hug as my mom had done. This time, however, I simply sighed and pulled him closer to me. I loved my mom to bits, but my dad had been my best friend for fourteen years before we had moved to Forks and I had met Bella and Rose. That kind of friendship leaves a lasting bond that nothing could break and I was going to miss him so much over the next forty-four weeks. I don't think I would have been able to leave if he hadn't promised to come and visit me on the open weekend in two weeks time.

"I'm going to miss you, Daddy," I whispered into his shirt, which was now soaked with my tears. "So, so much…"

"I'll miss you too Allie-bear," he said, kissing the top of my head. His use of the nickname he had given me when I was five made me smile, and I stepped back from his embrace. "Now have fun, and knock their socks off," he said, mock saluting me and making me giggle, just as Bella's truck came thundering around the corner into our street.

"I will," I promised. Then Bella and Rose helped me cram my three huge Louis Vuitton suitcases into the trunk of the truck; no small feat considering that they had five bags between them already stuffed inside the tiny space. Finally we managed to find space for all the bags, after some extensive reshuffling, and we piled into the car. Rose had already claimed shotgun so I stretched myself out on the roomy backseat and started to read one of the magazines Bella had stashed under the seats, whilst Bella drove to the airport as fast as the engine would allow.

BPOV

We were all so excited about the journey we were about to make, and about what would be waiting for us in the beautiful island nation which was our destination, that we couldn't stop giggling and bouncing around the airport like giddy school girls. Once we checked in our bags, Alice incurring a excess baggage charge for having more luggage than a family of four despite already booking extra allowances, we found ourselves a couple of seats near to our gate and left Rosalie to guard our carry on bags. I only carried a Parka, having been warned of bad weather by Charlie before we left, but Alice had the entire contents of her room in her purse so it took up a whole chair by itself. We teased her about this fact for almost an hour, whilst waiting for our flight, and then finally we boarded the plane and were up in the air.

The flight itself was boring, nothing to do but chat about what we were expecting from the hunky soldiers, and what we would be willing to do to get their attention.

"Would you flash them, Rose?" I asked, flashing her a smile and a cheeky wink.

"I'm not sure," she mused, her beautiful face scrunched in concentration. "Maybe," she decided finally, seeming pleased with her decision.

"What about flirting, Bells," Alice questioned me, giggling eagerly. "How far would you go?" I laughed and shook my head; we were all so predictable, thinking about seduction techniques instead of normal ways to meet and attract guys.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I answered cryptically, thrusting my chin into the air precociously, and Alice pouted. She knew I couldn't resist the power of that pout and so, predictably, I caved instantly. "Oh, I don't know, Alice. I guess you will find out when I do." That set Rose off laughing again, and soon we were all laughing uncontrollably, gasping for air before bursting into peals of laughter yet again.

Eventually, after a ten hour flight, we touched down at Heathrow Airport, near the centre of London, and collected our baggage from the reclaim conveyor belts. Alice got a little bit worried, after finding two of her bags very quickly, that the third had somehow got lost or something, but eventually it came down the belt in the last batch and she scooped it up into her arms like a long lost child.

We linked arms, just like in the movies, and strutted through the airport towards the door and the exciting new world that was England. The second I set foot through the door to the outside world, I shivered violently as a huge gust of cold air blasted past us, raising goose bumps on my arms. Rose and Alice scrambled into their bags to find coats before they froze to death, but I simply lifted my Parka from the top of the bag it was draped over, and slipped it on smugly. I'd have to thank Charlie when I got back for his excelled advice.

"Oh, stop it," Alice muttered, as she stood up straight and caught my expression before I could wipe it off my face. I smirked, and she punched me lightly in the arm, before smiling too, the irritation forgotten. Alice wasn't one to hold a grudge, she had only done it once since I had known her, and that had been perfectly justified.

_A bitchy girl at our high school, Sophia I think her name was, had barged Alice out of the way in the lunch queue one day. Alice had then asked her politely to apologise, fully willing to forget the incident completely. When the bitch had had the nerve to call Alice a slag, Alice had flipped in her own special way. She had said absolutely nothing, as was her way, yet the influence of the phenomenon that was Mary Alice Brandon had worked its magic. Two weeks later the girl's parents had transferred her to another school, and that was that. Alice reigned supreme without having to do anything but be._

I would always be glad that she was my friend. I would hate to get on the wrong end of the Brandon grudge. It was suicide.

Whilst we had been talking, a tall, deathly pale man dressed from head to toe in black approached us and introduced himself as Lieutenant Colonel Phillips. He then ushered us towards a large black car which was waiting by the side of the road, looking a bit like a Hummer only a lot more morbid and shiny, and without a word motioned for us to climb in.

"Hey buddy," I said. He was very hot from what I could see under all that black, with broad, well defined shoulders, but not nearly hot enough for me to just climb into a scary looking car with. He could be a creepy, perverted murder for all we know. "I'm not getting in that thing until I see some ID."

"Very well," he sighed, before pulling a small black wallet from his pocket and flipping it open. I took it from him and examined it thoroughly with the girls, smiling to myself as he frowned. He clearly didn't like me taking the small badge from him.

"Lieutenant Colonel James Phillips," I read, slowly and thoughtfully. "You weren't lying then." Sure now that he wasn't an axe-wielding maniac, I gave him a flirty smile and returned his ID. I was eager to see what his reaction to me would be, but I was disappointed when he just shook his head and sighed. Not interested, hmm? Bring on the challenge, big guy.

"You three do not look like the normal officer recruits we get sent," he said, gesturing again to the open door of the car. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back at us. "Maybe that's the American way. Get in." This time we did as he asked and he loaded our bags into the spacious trunk whilst we got ourselves settled. I turned to Rosalie, who was sitting to my left, before he came back and smirked.

"I think we just found our first challenge, Rose." She winked conspiratorially at me and nodded. Alice giggled again and she hurriedly smoothed down her skirt as our friend James reappeared and shut the door, before getting into the driver's seat and starting the car. I nudged Rose one more time, and she rested her forearm lightly on my shoulder, leaning in until her mouth was inches from my ear.

"Absolutely. Game on!" she whispered.

**AN: Review, review, review. Thank you. – Charlotte-xoxo**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: OK, so I've now planned out the whole of this story and I hope you guys are prepared to be in this for the long haul because this is going to be one long ass story. An absolute epic. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "Absolutely. Game on!" she whispered.

RPOV

"So, James…" I murmured seductively, leaning over the gap between the front seats and giving him a good view down the front of my low-cut, red t-shirt as he turned to look my way. "We can call you James, right?" I asked, looking as cute as was possible, given that I was leaning through a small space in a car travelling at quite a speed. Nice! I like a man who's not afraid to drive at speed. I've found, from past experience, that it tends to give some indication of the speed they like to go at when it comes to other activities too, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. James just frowned again, and began to shake his head.

"Actually, you can just call me…" I cut him of before he could say another word, and sat back into my seat with a huff.

"Great, thanks!" I said, stifling a giggle when Alice smirked at me. "So, James, what are you doing later?" I spoke in my most seductive tone, knowing that this would inevitably prove to be a bigger challenge than the other two were expecting. Don't get me wrong, I love flirting and I'm good at it, but I personally didn't think we were going to be able to crack those tough, British officers without a little effort.

I loved my girls more than I would ever admit to anyone, they were like sisters to me, but they were quite naïve when it came to guys. Just because the entire male population of our old high school had been easy pushovers didn't mean that all guys were like that. My last couple of boyfriends before we graduated had been college guys, whilst Bells and Alice had contented themselves with complete douche bags like Mike Newton, so I liked to think that I was a little more prepared than them for the world of real guys.

"Not you," James retorted, turning to give me an evil smile. Damn, the man was good. It was definitely going to be a challenge to break any of these guys, so I decided to leave it. There would probably be plenty of even hotter guys when we arrived, so I changed the subject.

"Whatever. So, what does your rank mean?" I asked because I was genuinely curious but Bella looked at me like I was mad. I patted her arm gently, as if to say 'I know what I'm doing', and then turned back to watch the road out of the front windscreen.

"Oh," He seemed shocked by the sudden change in the direction of the conversation, but answered anyway. "Well, Lieutenant Colonel is sixth…" He counted something quickly on his fingers. "…or seventh in terms of rank. By that I mean that there are six ranks above mine, six sets of people I can be asked to answer to. In the field I would be in charge of a battalion, but whilst im at the training centre I run the night ops centre." I nodded, storing everything he said for use later, and he took this as a cue to continue talking. "Since you aren't military personal, I guess you'll learn about this stuff as you go along, right?" He chuckled to himself, and then added one thing. "One last thing you might want to know, if you're interested. If you are asked to do something by a man called General Cullen, or if you see a crown anywhere on their uniform, you should probably do it pronto."

"Why?" Alice asked, speaking for the first time since we left the airport. "What does that mean?"

"General Cullen is the highest ranking man at the centre; he answers only to Field Marshall Black, who is posted in London permanently. He is the only man, besides our Prime Minister of course, who knows everything there is to know about British military intelligence. Therefore, predictably, he is too much of a security risk to be allowed to visit any of the bases around the UK."

"Cool, I bet he has masses of Secret Service following him around." Alice enthused, looking very excited by the idea.

"Allie, they don't have Secret Service in Britain, duh!" I corrected smugly, winking at James as he watched us talking from the passenger seat.

"No, they don't." James agreed, and then went back to his explanation as if nothing had happened. "We at Sandhurst are the only military training facility in the country to have a General on the staff, because they are usually very busy people, so if he speaks to you it will be important. I suggest you whatever it is, fast." He locked eyes with each of us in turn, his gaze turning steely and serious, and we all nodded blankly.

"What about the crown?" I asked, and was surprised when Bella spoke up before James could.

"It's for a General or Lieutenant General," she mumbled, then blushed as we all turned to look at her; even the driver who had ignored us since we got in turned his head slightly in her direction. "What? Charlie had a friend once who was a Lieutenant General. You remember Billy don't you girls?" she asked, and I suddenly realised who she meant.

"Oh yeah, that guy," I said, picturing old Billy Black when he had come across the pond to visit Bella one summer, a few years ago. "I remember."

"Bella is quite right," James praised, and Bella's blush, which had just started to fade, sprang up again. "There are two other people on the base with a crown on their uniform, and they are second only to General Cullen, so please also treat them with respect."

"Yes mister Lieutenant Colonel, sir," I said, slightly flippantly. It elicited a small smile from James, and I grinned back at him. A moment later Alice started bouncing in her seat, announcing that she could see the sign for Sandhurst, so we all stopped talking abruptly and I accidentally squished Bella as I tried to lean over her to see out of the window.

Finally, the black car rolled up outside a huge manor house and we all three gaped at it as James climbed swiftly out of the car and began to walk towards the door by Bella. We almost didn't notice it opening, engrossed as we were in the huge white building we had pulled up to. It had a huge set of wooden doors inside a courtyard of spotless white columns, and vast wings extending from the centre on both sides in perfect symmetry. It was beautiful, and ironically looked a lot like the White House back home, and I heard Alice sigh next to me.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" she stated, echoing my thoughts exactly.

"Hmm," was all I could manage, before James cleared his throat loudly and we snapped back to reality. He was waiting impatiently by the side of the car, all our bags already surrounding him, and was clearly waiting for something. When none of us moved from where we were sitting, staring blankly at him, he exhaled loudly and motioned for the two uniformed men that I hadn't even noticed standing behind him to step forward. They did so immediately and started gathering up bags on to a cart, which was waiting on the grass. Hmm, they were hot too; this would be fun.

"Well," James exclaimed, put out by our lack of attention to him. Now you want me to pay attention, I thought wryly, but didn't say anything. "Get out." We did as we were told, and made our way up the driveway of the huge, white house, following the cart which was tilting slightly under the weight of our cases.

A man stood on the very edge of the columned area, in the exact centre at the top of the steps. As we approached he saluted us, and James did the same. I wondered who he was; he looked too young to be important. He couldn't be much older than twenty. Again, I heard Alice gasp, and turned to look at her.

"Dibs," she whispered, and I giggled. He was certainly hot, lanky but still muscular, with shaggy blond hair and piercing blue eyes, but he looked too much like he could be my twin for my liking; it would be too weird.

"Noted," Bella replied, still looking straight ahead, and I nodded my agreement as we began to ascend the steps towards where Alice's target stood silent and expressionless at the top. James stood two steps below the blond guy and we hastened to do the same, just in case it was important. Then I noticed the crown on his uniform, just before Bella nudged me, telling me she'd seen it too.

"You must be the Americans," the man said curtly, and I had to grab Alice's arm to stop her collapsing; his voice was beautiful and calm, and somehow erotic at the same time. She was well within her rights to swoon. This guy was the perfect male specimen. "Unfortunately General Cullen couldn't be hear in person but he sends me in his stead. I am Lieutenant General Whitlock, and I would like to welcome you to Sandhurst." He saluted stiffly, pulling himself to attention, before shaking each of our hands politely.

"Let's go inside," he said, and turned his back to the last of us, Alice, who was practically hyperventilating, and began to stride away towards the big set of doors. They swung open as he reached them and he stepped through. We all, James included, hurried in behind him and I saw the doors being held open by two officers standing on the inside. Clever, and pretty darn impressive, until you saw how the magic worked. As soon as we were inside, and a safe distance from the Lieutenant Colonel so as not to be heard, Alice began whispering to James.

"Who the hell is that guy, and how old is he? He looks to young to be an officer."

"He," James said slowly, deliberately drawing his words out so that it sounded ominous and suspenseful. "… My dear, is a legend."

**AN: Review, please. Oh, and the start of the smut is coming soon. I promise, but only if you review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm sorry, it's been more than a week since I last uploaded. I promised on my other story that I would upload both by last Monday, but I got stuck in Europe because of the volcano eruption in Iceland. Britain is completely blocked, so I was away from my laptop for ages. Thankfully I'm home now, so enjoy...**

RECAP: "He," James said slowly, deliberately drawing his words out so that it sounded ominous and suspenseful. "… My dear, is a legend."

APOV

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, keeping my voice as level and steady as I could manage. It was taking all my strength to refrain from gushing to Rose and Bells about the incredibly gorgeous man who we were following or to faint where I stood. The thought flashed across my mind for a fraction of a second that, if I fainted, he might be the one I would open my eyes to see, but even I could see that the drawbacks of the plan would be hard to overcome. Instead, I contented myself with ogling his toned ass in his camouflage khaki pants as he strode away from us across a huge, deserted courtyard surrounded by sprawling oak trees.

If it wasn't for the rusty tank, nestled beneath two of the largest trees, or the uniform that two of our small party were wearing, then I could have almost imagined this to be a fairytale castle somewhere in Europe. The buildings surrounding the courtyard were low built, and clearly had tastefully matched together by someone who knew what they were doing. They were all unusually shaped, and made of a variety of different materials, but somehow seemed to mesh beautifully together in a unfathomable pattern. I knew I seemed sappy, but I just couldn't stop the jumble of mussy thoughts rushing through my brain.

"Well," James said, his voice sounding very close to my ear, and I jumped almost out of my skin. "He, at just twenty-three years old, is the youngest ever Lieutenant Corporal of the British Armed Forces." James' chest puffed out proudly as he said this, clearly his involvement in the army was something he was very proud of.

"And?" asked Rose obtusely, thrusting herself between me and our guide slightly brusquely. Rose wasn't well known for her tact, and she clearly wanted to do everything in her power to get James interested. I filed this knowledge away for thought later and turned my attention back to James, who was answering the question in between furtive glances to be sure that his superior wasn't listening.

"And, Miss Hale, that is almost impossible. Most officers take over a decade to rise that high, if they ever achieve it. He joined the forces at sixteen, straight from high school, and worked his way up to Major General within four years." Rosalie opened her mouth to speak, presumably to ask another question, but James cut her off by continuing his explanation for us. "Then, whilst in active duty in Afghanistan, just over a year ago, the Lieutenant General in charge of the operation was killed in action. Instead of aborting the mission, the then Major General Whitlock took over the command of the operation. That mission is the most successful the British have recorded to date, so it was an obvious move for him to be promoted on his return."

"Wow," I breathed, and then hurriedly clamped my fingers over my mouth as he turned around, to keep from embarrassing myself. He was so brave, and gorgeous; there was nothing that I could fault him on at all. He was absolutely perfect for me, and in that moment I resolved to make him mine. "If you don't think it's rude of me to ask, what is his name?"

"Keep it to yourself Miss Brandon," he whispered, leaning in and talking quieter than before. "I would be court-marshaled if he found out, but his name is Jasper." James winked once at Bella, who smirked, and Rosalie grimaced and stepped away, put out. Maybe there was hope for one of us though, but I wasn't sure. James had been quite resistant to our efforts before.

He stepped away as Jasper (what a perfect name!) turned around to wait for us to catch up, then grabbed Bella's arm as we walked away. He bent down and whispered something in her ear, causing Bella to shiver, then he was gone.

"Hurry up girls, please." Jasper called, and I hurried after Rose who was already half way towards him. "Your dorms are this way." As he said this, he stepped inside one of the low stone buildings and we followed. I lagged behind for Bella momentarily and asked her in a low voice what James had said.

"I'll tell both of you later," she mumbled, looking utterly shell shocked and dejected, and I wondered what he had said to make her look so upset. He had seemed genuinely into her and I really hope I wouldn't have to get all Mr T on his ass when we next saw him for upsetting my Bella.

"You're okay though, right?" I asked, concerned.

"Yeah," she told me firmly, nodding her head and smiling faintly. "It's just that we might have to, um, rethink our plans..." She trailed off cryptically, and slid past me to join Rose and Jasper who were climbing the stairs. Eager not to be left behind, and to not irritate my new hero any further, I ran after them and skipped up the stairs two at a time.

Once we had all reached the top of the short, shallow staircase, Jasper handed Rose, who was closest, a key and motioned to a door directly in front of her and she put it into the lock. I experienced a pang of anger and jealousy towards Rosalie that I had never felt before, and immediately chastised myself for even thinking it. I had been best friends with the girls for years, and this strange, beautiful man was making me feel strong hatred towards them for being close to him when I have never even spoken to him. It was unnerving, and I wasn't sure if I liked the sensation.

He stood absolutely still, frozen in a rigid, erect position that must have hurt his back, and Bella and I filed past him as we followed Rose through the door. He handed Bella a key of her own as she passed him and I held out my hand to him with a friendly smile. My own techniques for attracting guys were certainly subtler than Rose's, but they had never failed me yet. Oh, how I wanted this to work.

As I took the key from his fingers, the side of my thumb lightly brushed against the tip of his middle finger and I stifled a gasp. A jolt of white hot electricity sparked between us and my eyes snapped up to meet his. His bright blue eyes bored deep into my soul and I saw a faint smile grace his stunning features for a moment. It was over before I could react though, and he pulled his hand away sharply and looked down towards the floor, breaking our eye contact.

"The... the rule book, schedule and uniforms are on your beds," he stammered, seeming flustered and blushing a pale pink, almost like Bella did when she got embarrassed. "Please, um, read all the literature and report to the initial briefing on time..." He stopped, an unuttered question hanging in the air between us.

"Alice Brandon," I practically shouted, in my enthusiasm to talk to this man who me completely entranced. "It's Alice." He saluted me and began to walk away, muttering to himself as he went. I could have sworn that I heard him say my name slowly, almost reverently, but decided that it must just be my imagination and ignored it as my desire and fantasies working in overdrive.

BPOV

"Oh. My. Fucking. God!" Alice breathed, as she closed the door and collapsed on her back onto the bed between Rose's and mine. Alice hated being on the end of any queues or even row of seats, so Rose and I had left the middle of the row of three bed for her. She smiled beatifically up at us and Rose shook her head affectionately.

"Three guesses what's got Allie so happy," I giggled, and sat down on Alice's bed by her head as Rose did the same on the other side. Alice sat up and sighed, a goofy smile plastered on her face like a five year old with a new toy.

"Rose, he's perfect," Alice gushed, and I grimaced. I was over the moon that Alice had identified the perfect guy so fast, but I was the bearer of some news that would deflate her good mood like a balloon.

"One problem girls," I said solemnly, picking up the rule book and waving it at Alice. She nodded and took it from me, opening it at the front and looking blankly at it.

"Jazz said that we should read this," she mumbled, still in a haze of Jasper Whitlock. "I don't think i'll get very far though." I shook my head and opened it to a page near the middle and pointed at a particular paragraph.

"Read that," I commanded, and Rose and Alice put their heads together over the book, reading together. "Alice, do you remember that you asked me what James said to me." Rosalie lok up and started to smirk at me, but I shook my head miserably and she sobered up quickly, frowning in cofusion.

"Yeah, so?" Alice asked, looking up too. Clearly, neither of them had understood what they had just read. I knew that in school I had been the smart one, whereas the others had been more into extra-curricular stuff, but it was obviously a bit over their heads. I would have to explain it more clearly.

"He told me that it was a shame that I was a cadet, because otherwise he would have been happy to give me a very 'warm' welcome to Sandhurst."

"What a creep," Rose sneered, wrinkling her nose in a way which clearly read that she wasn't happy.

"Yeah, but he was cute," pondered Alice, before recognition lit her gray eyes. "Hang on, he said it was a shame that you were a cadet?" She cocked her head to the side, and adopted a patented Alice expression; adorably and utterly confused.

"That's why I showed you the rule book, Alice," I said patiently, and looked pointedly at the little black book on her lap. She picked it up and read the passage in question aloud, evidently hoping for enlightenment the second time around.

"All fraternization for cadets is expressly forbidden until officer status is awarded, or the cadet is discharged for any reason. Failure will result in immediate dishonorable discharge, no exceptions."

"Oh. Shit!" Rose breathed, as the point I had been trying to make hit her between the eyes. "That could be a problem."

"I still don't get it," Alice complained, looking from Rose to me, and back, trying to understand.

"Basically, Alice," Rosalie took over impatiently, not content to let me finish. I happily let her explain; sometimes with Alice the blunt approach was best. "We can't get with any of the other cadets or any 'officers' until the end of the course, in forty-four weeks." She emphasized the word officer, just to hammer the point home, and Alice's face fell. She slumped forwards and rested her head in her hands, elbows propped up on her knees.

"But... Jasper," was all she could manage to say, and Rose nodded her head and grinned. Alice wasn't watching her, but I saw the smile growing on her face and looked at her questioningly.

"I know, babe," Rose said comfortingly, her smile expanding by the second, until it had reached dazzling proportions. I was glad that nothing male was in the vicinity or we would be done for. "And I think I have a plan." She said the words confidently, with a slight air of mystery, and Alice looked up from her lap.

"What?"she asked, still miserable but intrigued nonetheless.

"Well, they say we can't fraternize, right?" Alice nodded, and I just waited silently. "But, they never said anything about them fraternizing with us." She winked at me, and I began to smile too. The girl was an absolute genius.

"Nice," I said, and slapped Rose a high five.

"Are you ready to get your seduction face on, Allie?" Rose asked, leaning over to place her hand a few inches from Alice's own. Alice's head snapped up and she grinned an identical evil grin to Rosalie's.

"I was born ready," she said venomously, high-fiving Rosalie.

"If we're all agreed?" asked Rose expectantly, and we nodded our agreement. "Then let's make it interesting. Care to make a bet, ladies?"

**AN: Review, and I'll try not to leave it so long between posts again. Sorry!**

**Charlotte-xoxo**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Sorry, it took a while; I was very busy with a French exam. However, I do post more regularly than many authors do on this site, so I hope you will forgive me. I can only write for so long. I will try not to leave it more than four days or so, if I can. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "If we're all agreed?" asked Rose expectantly, and we nodded our agreement. "Then let's make it interesting. Care to make a bet, ladies?"

RPOV

"What kind of bet?" asked Alice, her already bright eyes widening in excitement. None of us could resist the opportunity to place a bet, and when it was against each other, it was even more impossible. That's why I was confident of getting the other two on board with my little stroke of genius, just to make the challenge of seduction even more fun. "What would this bet entail, exactly?" She seemed uncertain, unusual for the usually spontaneous Alice, so I elaborated to aid her peace of mind.

"Alice, don't worry! I'm not going to suggest anything illegal this time." I laughed, remembering the last time I had made a bet with Alice. Bella had been under self-imposed house arrest during her finals, whilst Alice and I had gone out. Bella had insisted that we go and, despite it being weird without her, we'd had a lot of fun. Then, Alice had noticed an incredibly hot guy, standing alone by the bar, and we had placed a bet on who could kiss him first. A bet of five hundred dollars had been riding on it, a lot of money, I know, but we were naive and privileged, until we discovered that the guy was a thirty-year-old undercover cop. We spent twenty-five minutes in one of Chief Swan's cells, singing 'Cell Block Tango' at the top of our lungs, until Bella could persuade her father that two seventeen year old girls should not be held responsible for being in a club, underage and flirting with married men. We had all had to keep a pretty low profile for a while after that, Bella included. Good times, good times.

"I just thought, since we are all keen to get stuck in anyway, that we could make a competition out of it... with a 'small' incentive to encourage us, of course."

"Well, I'm in. How much are we footing each?" Alice said immediately after I finished speaking. Brilliant! One down, one to go. Everything rode on Bella, since she always had to set the cap for money. She was the only one of the group who actually had to earn her way through life, Alice and I having trust funds, so we always gave her the final say. Alice and I were a little bit crazy with spending, and I knew that when the sales were on I had no limits. Alice was worse, well known for buying entire shops if she wanted them.

It had become so bad that we often had to go into the mall incognito, incase a shop assistant spotted Alice and made a beeline for us. She was infamous; get her into your shop, and you would be getting a pay rise.

"Oh okay!" Bella huffed, just when I was starting to worry. "I brought an emergency fund with me, just incase my allowance didn't arrive on time one month, so I guess I'm in." She did not seem happy, so I wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Hun," I reassured her. "I'll protect you." I knew that she was feeling homesick, and I wanted her to feel loved whilst she was away from home. Alice and I had been all around the world with our families, but Bella had never even been out of state. It was all totally new to her.

"So… how much?" asked Alice impatiently and Bella giggled, her unhappiness forgotten.

"One hundred dollars," Bella mumbled, clearly unhappy with that sum. I knew it was several months of savings for her, but I wanted this to be fun so I agreed. I could always give her money back if she lost.

"Done," I said, and we all crammed onto Alice's bed, in the middle, to discuss rules and such. An hour later, we were still bickering over the fine print when the door crashed open and a short, brunette girl staggered in carrying a mound of luggage. She had almost twice what Alice had brought, and I could see more cases out in the hall. She must be even more obsessed than Alice and I combined, which is no mean feat.

"Hey, you guys," she called across the room, and waved at us awkwardly from her precarious position. "Could you give me a hand?" We agreed, because she seemed really nice, and soon we had the luggage arranged into two neat piles, as she had requested, on the floor by the three beds on the other side of the room. It was obvious just from looking at the piles that I had misjudged her. More than half the bags were Dolce and Gabbana, expensive looking and coated in patent leather. The other, decidedly smaller pile was a bit more homely looking, decorated with badges and doodles like Bella always did to her suitcases.

"Which pile is yours?" I asked, although one glance at the girl's simple, yet perfect clothing choice made the answer obvious. The only question was who had employed the poor girl as a pack mule. She pointed silently at the smaller pile and grimaced, as if waiting for me to rebuke her for her lack of designer luggage. I realized after a moment that she would see me as some snobby, blonde diva, and I smiled at her.

"Cool. So, whose are those?"

"Oh those are…" She was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open again and a pair of stiletto heels clicking on the wooden floor.

"Those are mine," said the newcomer, a tall platinum blonde girl who could rival me in an 'I look like a total bitch' contest. "And you are?" She looked contemptuously down her nose at me, and I sneered. There was the difference between us; I looked like a bitch, she WAS a bitch. Fake tan, too much lip-gloss, and an overinflated ego to match. She looked like an orange haystack with a salivary gland issue and a bad smell under her nose. Urgh! Thankfully, Alice spoke up before I could, or it would not have been pretty for anyone.

"We are the new American cadets," she informed the bitch, and began to introduce us each in turn. The girl looked thoroughly uninterested, but looked at us each as we were introduced anyway, probably sizing us up as competition. When Alice got to the brunette who had carried up the bitch's bags, she paused, waiting to be introduced to both of them.

"I'm Jess," the brunette piped up, speaking for the first time since the other girl had arrived. She seemed scared of her; it did not take much to see why. Jess was being used as slave labor, and that bothered me. "Jessica Stanley, if you want to be formal. This is Contessa Mallory, Lauren for short." 'Lauren' shot me a smug look and drew herself up straighter, looking ridiculous as she tried to intimidate me. Nice try, small fry. She didn't know the meaning of intimidation.

"Contessa?" Alice asked, confusion clouding her tone.

"Yes, Contessa." Lauren said sweetly, talking very slowly to Alice the way you might speak to a five year old. "As in, my family is one of the oldest and wealthiest in England. When my father died, since he had divorced my mother, passed his title down to me."

"Oh, that's nice. Was your dad a Contessa too?" I sniped, deciding to be rude. The nice approach, the one Alice always encouraged me to use when meeting new people, was not working. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bella step forward to stand beside me, presenting a united front. No one talks to my best friend like that and lives. That bitch was dead!

"No, of course not, you stupid cow. He was a Count," she stated proudly, clearly missing, or ignoring, the tone of my reply. Her comment caused me to lose it and I started to lunge at her. Alice hurried forward and helped Bella to try to stop me ripping Lauren's face off, and between them, they managed to pull me away. Lauren simply rolled her eyes and walked away to unpack. Coward! She had no idea who she was dealing with, and by calling me a cow she had just unwittingly signed her death warrant. She would have to watch her step from now on. Contessa or not, accidents happen.

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but we have to be at the initial briefing in ten minutes. We probably shouldn't be late." Jessica mumbled into the silence as Bella sent me calming vibes and I pointedly ignored Lauren from across the room as she unloaded piles of skimpy lingerie from her case. Where did she think we were? The spa.

"Oh yeah, let's go," Alice said quickly, and we left the room quickly before Lauren could join us. Jessica came with us, probably glad to get away from the bitch and we talked to her as we walked down the stairs.

"Why are you the bitch's bag carrier then?" I asked, not caring that I sounded rude or brusque. Politeness had never been a strong point of mine.

"She's my half sister," Jess told us sadly, and we all offered her our deepest condolences. The poor girl, who did not seem to share any of the traits she said her mother had donated to Lauren's gene pool, was cursed with a horrible life. She told us that she had lived with Lauren for nearly ten years, since their mom left them with Lauren's paternal grandma, and it did not sound fun. Apparently, the sort of thing we had witnessed with the packhorse behavior happened a lot. She didn't elaborate, but I could tell she needed our help so I decided to help her stand up to Lauren.

Whilst we had been talking we had made our way out of the doors of our building and through into a smaller courtyard of the main one, filled with uniformed and plain clothed people, cadets I assumed. We joined the back of the crowd, who were gathering around a small podium with a loud speaker perched on it, and six chairs arranged on a raised platform behind it, so I figured we would just follow the crowd and… well, crowd. I was looking around to see if I could spot any cute officers to set my sights on when Bella poked me hard in the shoulder, gesturing to guide my attention back to the stage.

Five of the six chairs were now taken up and I gasped as I scanned the faces of five of the most stunning faces I had ever seen. The seat to the far left had been filled by Alice's new obsession, Jasper, and she was hiding behind Bella, fixing her hair, since she had seen him looking her way. Next to him was a beautiful, strawberry blonde woman with flawless skin and a confident air about her. They were both beautiful, and perfect, but my eyes were drawn to the three men seated to her right. One was tanned, with smooth olive skin and black hair. One had a chiseled face and a strangely attractive, bronze sex-hair thing going on. He was hot, but the last man… was perfect.

He was huge, wearing only a tight, white wife beater even though it was cold out, and his muscles were bulging. He was laughing with the bronze haired guy, showing a set of the cutest dimples I had ever seen. I felt my knees buckle at the sight, and my body began to tingle in excitement. I turned to Bella to stake my claim to the bodybuilder with the dimples, but she was gaping up at the podium herself, mouth-hanging open.

"Bells," I said nervously, hoping she wasn't staring at the same guy I was. I wanted him, more than anything, and not even Bella was going to stop me.

"Yeah," she replied dreamily, not really listening to me. "Isn't he perfect?"

"He is, and he's mine," I said firmly, poking her ribs gently, playfully, to prove my point.

"Aw, but Rose. You know I love sex hair. It's just so hot." She looked like she was about to salivate, so I almost missed her comment. I looked back at the man on the podium and frowned, he had cute little dark curls. Not exactly sex hair.

"What do you mean?" I asked, still glancing furtively at the muscular figure in front of us.

"The God with the bronze sex hair, sitting just over there, Rose. I want him, bad! What did you think I meant?" she asked, confused.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, as the realization hit and I breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't looking at the same guy at all, it was all good… it was perfect. My eyes glazed over, and Alice had to snap her fingers in front of my eyes to attract my attention.

"Okay, so I take it you two have identified a target," she said harshly, and I smiled sheepishly. "Now get your head out of the gutter and listen to the boss." I glanced at the podium to see a middle-aged man with golden blonde hair was standing there, rearranging papers on the lectern, ready to begin his speech or whatever. I concentrated on him and what he had to say, not wanting to miss anything. It was tough and I felt my mind and my eyes, wandering to those dark curls and goddamn dimples.

"Cadets, welcome to hell," the man said into the loudspeaker, and I took a second to process his words. Hell. What? Oh, shit!

**AN: Review, review, review. Thankee kindly. Sorry Edward ****is not highlighted, but I am doing the next chapter from BPOV so you will get a whole load of Edward mania then. Thanks for all the reviews so far, I love them all.**

**PS. All you lovely non-British people, I will be using some British slang and idioms over the course of this story. I will try to explain the meanings but please ask if you don't understand. Oh, and, if you want, you can ask if you are British too. I may just be using the word wrong. Thanks.**

**PPS. The bet. For those who are concerned, I will elaborate on the rules and stuff very soon, so don't fret duckies.**

**Charlotte-xoxo**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Longest multi-chapter story chapter I've ever written. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "Cadets, welcome to hell," the man said into the loudspeaker, and I took a second to process his words. Hell. What? Oh, shit!

BPOV

"Oh, shit!" I heard Rose mumble, as she stood next to me. I snuck a glance at her and she didn't seem to have noticed that she had spoken aloud, so I turned my attention back to the five, insanely beautiful people who sat on the stage in front of us. The first to have caught my attention was a woman who couldn't have been much older than me, and had a pale, almost porcelain-like face, framed with heavy blonde waves which were swept up into a messy, yet natty bun at the nape of her neck. The short curls that hung loose looked almost auburn where the sun caught it on one side of her flawless face, setting her naturally colorless skin alight with golden sunbeams. The dark blue uniform that fit her slender frame to perfection was pristinely pressed, and the white belt synched in her waist making her look, despite the military setting, like a runway model. Her beret was perched expertly to one side on top of her hair, and it almost made me look forward to wearing one, such was the skill with which it was pulled off.

"This," the light blonde- haired man who had originally spoken interrupted me from my examination of the woman. She looked up at me as he spoke, a smile spreading across her face as she surveyed the small crowd of cadets, and I looked away quickly to avoid eye contact as her gaze swept towards me. Instead, I turned my attention to the man, who gestured at the blonde woman as he spoke. "Is Brigadier Denali and she will be taking charge of Red Team for the second year running."

I looked at Alice, who had emerged from behind Rosalie with a lip-gloss tube in hand, for an answer but she just shrugged back at me. I didn't have a clue what a red team was, but I figured that I would find out eventually, if I hadn't already missed the explanation already. The man was speaking again, so I listened carefully so I didn't miss anymore. "This is Lieutenant Colonel McCarty and Colonel Masen, our newest rising stars, who will command Green and Blue Teams respectively," he continued, gesturing to two other men who sat side by side, dressed in the same crisp, blue uniform as Brigadier Denali minus the beret. I didn't notice them much however, because I had just solved the mystery of Alice's lip-gloss emergency. Jasper was sitting on the seat next to Brigadier Denali, his blue eyes staring unwaveringly at Alice as she smiled sheepishly back. It was obvious that neither of them could see anyone else, so deep was the almost palpable spark that cracked between them, and I wondered absently if I had been foolish to make that bet with Alice and Rose. It seemed almost inevitable now as to who would win, with that kind of chemistry.

"Finally, I have the honor of announcing something that has never before happened at Sandhurst. Both of our Lieutenant Generals have agreed to head up teams for me this year, which will make the experience all the more fulfilling for those of you who are assigned to their teams. "Whitlock and Black are two of the finest graduates Sandhurst has ever produced, including yours truly, and I hope you will treat them with the respect they deserve." Several people, myself included, smirked at his weak attempt at a joke, and then sobered up quickly as he fixed his steely glare upon them each in turn. "They will head up the Yellow and Black Teams. Now, there are a few more things that you need to know…"

I tuned him out as he began to go over the rules I had already read and memorized from the handbook in our room. Looking over at Rosalie, I could tell that I wasn't the only one not listening to the announcements. Rosalie was staring, slack-jawed towards the opposite end of the stage, and I followed her gaze. My gaze fell upon the man that had been referred to as Colonel Masen, and I froze in place. My breath caught in my throat and I became extremely light headed. How could I have over looked the man just moments ago? Now, I was unable to look away from this… this God!

He was pale, just like the Brigadier, due to the British weather I presumed, and he was as perfect as she was, maybe more so. His eyes were a deep, mesmerizing shade of emerald green, and were framed by long, dark lashes that brushed his cheek when he blinked. Whereas on most men this would have looked odd and effeminate, it just made him even hotter and his eyes look smoldering and sultry. His nose was straight and angular, and his lips full and red and perfect. My eyes slowly took in his broad shoulders with his blue jacket straining slightly in the right places, hinting at an extremely muscular physique underneath. He was stunning, and I felt my legs turning to jelly **(AN: I think I'm right in saying that jelly in America isn't the same as it is in Britain, so if you guys want to think of this as… um, I think it's jell-o or jello, then feel free. Correct me if I'm wrong.)**, as my brain turned to mush.

And his hair… Oh God, his hair! It was a peculiar, yet perfect bronze color, with flecks of blonde and brown in it, but that wasn't what drew my eyes to it. It was unruly, and it gave him that freshly-fucked look that I had never been able to resist as a teenager. It had been what had caused me to fall head over heels with innumerable actors and male models over the years. This guy had the sex factor in bucket loads, and I couldn't think of any guy that I had ever felt more attracted to at first glance.

I was running my eyes, which were probably wide and wild right now, over his face again, storing ever inch to memory, when Rosalie spoke my name.

"Bella," she asked cautiously, which distracted me enough to tear my eyes from momentarily from the god that was Colonel Masen.

"Yeah," I replied, before my attention wandered automatically back to the beautiful man with the sex-hair on the stage. "Isn't he perfect?" I added quietly, almost to myself.

"He is, and he's mine," she responded, poking me a little too hard in the ribs. What? That man was mine, and nothing, not even Rose, was going to stand in my way. I decided, instead of getting angry, to respond playfully. The last thing we needed was a fight, one that Rose would undoubtedly win, despite my 'limited knowledge of origami'. I remembered only too well the reaction I had received from her the first time I had used that phrase to avoid fighting Rose. We had been ten years old, and she had wanted the pink pen that I had taken from her kitchen drawer. She had offered, rather generously for her, to fight me for it and I had agreed. It was only after I realized that the two years she had spent in Taikwondo classes would pay off that I began to panic. She wasn't one to hold back and I did not particularly want to get shish-kebabed.

I had said the first thing that came into my head, which had seemed to be quite witty at the time. "I must warn you, I have a limited but deadly knowledge of… origami." Unfortunately, Rose had seen through my quick thinking, and had me in a headlock less than thirty seconds later. I hadn't tried that again and she had always picked her pen first from then on, up until the present day.

"Aw, but Rose," I said softly. "You know I love sex hair. It's just so hot." She didn't reply for several moments and I got a bit nervous, but then she spoke again, sounding confused. What confusion could there possibly be, Rose knew exactly what I meant. She had been there through all my high school obsessions and heartbreaks, and had been through most of them with me.

"What do you mean?" she asked, confirming my suspicions of her confusion.

"The God with the bronze sex hair, sitting just over there, Rose," I explained. "I want him, bad! What did you think I meant?" He shifted in his seat, letting his knees spread slightly and I groaned internally. I wanted him so bad. I forced myself to drop my eyes before I was caught ogling the guy's crotch, or something.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, and it was my turn to look confused. Then I noticed that Rose wasn't staring in quite the right direction as I had been. I had been so distracted that I had barely even noticed the second of the two men at that end of the stage. Rose had been looking instead at a huge, hulk-of-a-man, seated next to the object of my obvious desire. I felt relieved that I wouldn't have to fight her for him, because I so would have, and then turned my attention to Alice who had tapped my arm sharply. She snapped her fingers in front of Rose's face then addressed both of us sharply.

"Okay, so I take it you two have identified a target," I nodded, and she continued to speak. "Now get you head out of the gutter and listen to the boss." I chastised myself for missing so much of the blond boss-man's speech and smiled apologetically at Alice, before looking back up at him. He had moved to the lectern and was arranging papers on it, presumably taking a pause in his speech. He seemed to finish whatever he was doing, and then looked up straight at me and spoke.

"Cadets, welcome to hell," he said calmly, his liquid, amber eyes piercing deep into my soul. It was unnerving, and I looked away. What had he said? The thoughts caught up with me. Hell. This couldn't be good. "I'm going to hand over to Councilor Platt now, who will be seated at the table over there." He pointed over our heads, and I looked to see a woman sitting behind a table I was sure hadn't been there when we had arrived. "She will be able to tell you what team you will be assigned to for the duration of the course. You are dismissed." With that he turned, and sat down in the empty seat beside Jasper, and engaged him in energetic conversation.

"If everyone will please gather round," I heard a soft female voice say, and I grabbed Alice by the shoulder to pull her towards the table. Rosalie, being the independent, confident girl she was, was already at the front of the queue, talking to a old man with silvery black hair seated beside Counselor Platt. She flashed him a dazzling smile, and skipped over to us, brimming with excitement.

"I'm in Green Team," she gushed, eyes bright and euphoric. I remembered that the General had said that was the team run by McCarty, the beefy guy Rose had been drooling over, so I hugged her and told her how happy I was for her. It would make her job so much easier, spending so much time with him, but I was worried now. I desperately wanted to be assigned to the same team as Rosalie and Alice, but I also wanted to be in Colonel Mason's team too. There was also the possibility that I could be assigned to a completely different team, and I was scared that I would be alone.

"Next," called the woman and Alice danced forward, always ready to please. The slight Asian girl to my left looked at me when the grey haired man looked up from his folder, as if to ask my permission to go to him, and I nodded. She headed over to him and Alice returned to us, looking a little crestfallen.

"Not yellow?" Rose asked kindly, and Alice shook her head. "Black." Rosalie and I enveloped her in a tight group hug and I urged her not to cry.

"He likes you anyway, and you'll still see him loads." I reassured her and she nodded, brushing away the single tear that had spilled from the corner of her eye and down her cheek.

"Yeah, he is so into you already." Rose agreed, and Alice looked slightly happier already.

"You're up to bat, Bells," she whispered, and I hurried over to the desk where the old man sat patiently waiting.

"Hi," I greeted him breathlessly. "I'm Bella Swan."

"Thank you, one moment," he replied in the most elegant, ancient British accent I had ever heard. It was powerful and majestic, yet gentle and compassionate at the same time. He consulted his chart briefly, and then locked his gaze on me again, smiling and showing a set of pearly white teeth. He looked strangely familiar, russet skin and long black hair dotted with grey from age, and it became immediately clear to me why when he spoke again. "You've been assigned to Black Team, and will report to Lieutenant General Black at nine o'clock tomorrow morning in the gym." An idea hit me like a freight train, and I grinned.

"Speaking of Black," I spoke my suspicions, aware that if I was wrong I would be well out of line. His dark eyes twinkled and I knew I had to be right. "May I ask your surname, Sir?"

"Very good, Miss Swan," he chucked. "My name is Councilor Black, and yes, Jake is my son."

"Jake?" I asked, just to check what I already knew.

"Lieutenant General Black," he corrected himself, then shook his head. "I don't like calling him that though. It's always been just Jake for me." He smiled one more time then dismissed me with a friendly goodbye. "It was nice to meet you, Miss Swan." I realized with a blush and a flood of embarrassment that I was holding up the queue and waved goodbye, my face flaming red.

"Thank you, and it's Bella." I turned away to walk back to Alice and Rose, who looked amused, and a bit confused.

"Bye, Bella."

APOV

We waited longer than I would have expected for Bella to come back, because she was busy chatting with the old man at the desk. When she finally said goodbye and walked away he was on first name terms, which I thought was odd.

"Finished flirting with the old guy yet, Bells?" Rose said bluntly, and Bella laughed.

"No, but he was really nice," she quipped back and Rose shut up, which was strange for her. "I'm in Black." I squealed and hugged her; at least if I couldn't be in Jasper's team I could be with Bella. We started talking about random things like the gorgeous auburn color of the Red Team leader's hair, and the age we thought the General was, and eventually we found our way back to our dorm room. It was obvious that no one wanted to start the conversation that we all had in the back of our minds, of three beautiful boys that had captured our attention, but were too childish to discuss normally. I decided to take the plunge, and plunked myself back on my bed once the door was shut, and we were sure no one was inside.

"So… I have a feeling that this bet just became a whole lot more fun, huh?" I said, and immediately the other two began talking at once. Rose was in full flow describing Lieutenant Colonel McCarty's tank top in detail, and Bella was gushing about the scar on Edward's face, when I yelled at them to stop. "Calm down, guys! We need to remind ourselves of the rules of our bet, I think."

They stopped talking abruptly and sank down onto the bed beside me. I retrieved my journal from my locker, leaving the padlock on the tabletop, and opened it to the page I wanted. Then, when I was sure they were listening, I read the rules aloud one more time:

One cannot initiate any kind of sexual act. It must only be received. Participation in said sexual act after initial initiation by outside source is acceptable (Go for your life!).

No techniques which are illegal at the making of the list may be engaged.

No sabotage, back-stabbing, or reputation destruction permitted.

Bet will be one only upon achievement of penetrative sex. Anything else is a good start, but not good enough.

Failure to abide by any of these rules will result in an immediate forfeit of any wager placed upon the bet.

Wager at time of notation: $100 per person ($300 total)

Then we had each signed the bottom of the page, just like we had done in high school. It seemed a bit over the top to me, the fancy language, although Bella assured me that it was fine. I also wasn't a hundred percent sure that I knew what half the words meant, but I guessed that Bella wouldn't have signed it if it was bad so I wasn't too worried.

"Are we happy?" I asked, and Rose nodded. Bella, however, didn't look entirely convinced. "You okay, Bells?"

"Yeah, but do you still think we should we go for full on sex? I mean, if we get caught…" she trailed off, but I got the point. She was worried that we might get into real trouble, both for us and for the officer involved, and to be truthful to myself I was concerned too. It was a risk, but I was willing to take it to ensnare Jasper.

"Don't worry, babe," Rose told her, as I was about to do the same, and patted her shoulder comfortingly. "We won't get caught."

"Okay, I'm still in then," Bella said hesitantly, and Rose agreed a second later. I smiled at them; the decision made, and stashed my journal away. I put the lock on it, snapped it shut and then made my way to the large shared bathroom to get ready for bed. Once I was done I got out my iPhone and rang my mom in America, figuring that since it was mid-afternoon there now was my best bet, and talked to my parents for an hour or so while the others took a shower.

It was gone eleven by the time I hung up, and Bella was already out for the count, so I whispered goodnight to Rosalie and curled up in my bed. My mind raced, flickering images of Jasper flashing across it, and I wondered briefly why Jess and Lauren hadn't come back yet, but eventually I fell asleep and dreamt of Jasper and what I would do to him if I got my way.

**AN: So, I tried really hard to make this longer, just for you guys. Please review and tell me what you think, I love them. Reviews are like vodka to an underage drinker.**** (PS. Do not do this at home. I may do it, but I don't advocate it; especially to people in countries where the legal age is over 18.) Thanks for reading, review please!!!**

**PPS. I have forgotten this for three chapters running, but the photos for Military Academy are on my profile, right at the bottom. The stuff I described is mainly real, so yeah, check it out. I have also posted a list of British Army ranks there too, with the characters by them, and I will add names by them as I introduce characters just so you can keep track of who is who. Enjoy.**

**PPPS. Any vocab you can't figure out, just drop me a PM or review and I'll straighten it out as best I can.**


	7. BONUS  JPOV

**BONUS**

**AN: So, I really haven't the best couple of days, and I really didn't feel like writing the next chapter to this story because it would have turned out awful and teen angst-esque. However, I felt kind of bad about not writing so I thought I'd do something slightly different, yet still related to Military Academy which was requested by one of the reviewers a while ago (****'****AliceMary Whitlock Cullen-Hale' if I am not mistaken)****. This is a one shot, once in a lifetime opportunity to experience what passed through Lieutenant General Whitlock's mind when he first met Alice. The next full chapter will be full of Alice/Jasper flirting, so think of this as a prelude if you will, or feel free not to read it if you think it will ruin the story for you. Your choice… and enjoy.**

JPOV – First Meeting

I stood silently on the edge of the parapet, overlooking the perfectly manicured lawns surrounding the drive up towards the main house. Sandhurst was calm and relaxed this morning, which suited me just perfectly. I had never felt particularly at ease in an environment where there was complete calm, but as long as something was ticking over then tranquility wasn't such a bad thing. It made a nice change being here to life on the front line, and I had found since I had arrived just a few months ago, that I had adjusted to the 'quiet life' much better than I had thought possible. My temperament was such that I fed off excitement and tension in a situation, and it made the adrenaline pump in my veins. I was an adrenaline junky, and I knew it. Or at least I had been up until I had been send home for leave after earning my completely unexpected promotion. That honor had not been something that I had anticipated receiving, or had even considered as a career boost, but I had accepted it eagerly nonetheless. Lieutenant Generals were few and far between nowadays, ever since the Second World War, and to be accorded that privilege at such a young age was astounding to both me and to my family.

I had known when I returned to the centre army base in Kabul that the raid had been unorthodox, but had involved a lot of skill on my part and even more so that of the squadron under my direction, but I had been expecting a court marshal for my actions. I had disobeyed a direct order and that had jeopardized the lives of over two hundred personnel, but I had believed my judgment in the situation to be correct. Apparently so did General Ford and he had recommended me for immediate, if a little unorthodox, promotion. I was still unconvinced of my worthiness of such praise but I had accepted it grateful.

Then, a month or so later, once I had been declared physically and mentally fit and ready to return to active duty, I had been contacted by one General Cullen and asked to join Sandhurst to advise new cadet recruits through their basic training. As eager as I was to get back out into the fight, I had eventually agreed to the request. I would have never admitted it to anyone, fierce pride being a weakness of mine, but the campaign that had earned me the right to wear the crown of the British Empire on my cuff had taken more out of me than I would have liked. I had a feeling that a few months teaching rather than fighting would be as good a therapy as I could get. So, he I was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I finally spotted the car I had been waiting to see, making its leisurely way up the drive towards me. I motioned to two of the junior officers beside me, Jones and Smith I thought their names were, and they hurried down the steps to meet the decelerating vehicle and collect the luggage from the boot on the luggage cart. Then, once I was content that they were competent enough for me not to have to send a replacement to do the job properly, I turned my attention to the four people exiting the spacious, black car. One I knew only too well, my obnoxious and smarmy colleague Smith. He was, quite simply, an imbecile, and I had no idea how his friends could put up with him. I had tried hard to get to know him, hoping that he wouldn't be such an ass once I knew more about him, but the exercise had been a complete failure. The man had no redeeming features to speak of.

To distract me from my mental tirade I watched the other three, all young women, who had clambered out of the back seat after _he_ had held it open for them. One was short and delicately petite, with cropped hair that looked midnight black but I couldn't be sure from this distance. She wore an eclectic mix of clothes that would have swamped and washed out anyone else, but oddly enough seemed to work on her slight, pixie-like frame. The second was tall and statuesque, with unmistakable platinum blonde hair and an attention-grabbing red dress. She was stunning, for sure, but looked a little too like my aunt Leticia for me to be attracted to her. The third was a brunette and was slightly less striking than her the two girls who stood to either side of her, although I suspected that was more down to her conservative clothing choice than her physical appearance. She was still dressed fancily, something that all three would have to alter once inside the 'gates of hell', but the colors were a bit more demure and not nearly as daring.

For some reason I couldn't quite explain I felt drawn to look back at the first girl I had noticed, and felt a jolt of white hot electricity pass between us as she stared straight back at me. They were walking up the steps towards me now and I watched the pixie's lips move slightly as she mumbled something I couldn't hear to her friends. The leggy blonde giggled at her comment, which I hoped desperately wasn't anything about me, and covered her face with her fingers in the typical girl way. I couldn't explain it but I had suddenly become an insecure teenager again, hoping that the pretty girls weren't gossiping bad things about me, just like we were back in high school. It was a strange feeling but I had felt this way before, a couple of years ago, so I brushed it off as nerves over meeting the new recruits. I knew deep down that I was lying to myself, but I didn't care at the moment. There would be plenty of time for that later. Now, I had to focus on the Americans.

I had been warned about these three, by the General. Inexperienced, he had said; not because they were American but because they were three teenage girls who were barely out of high school. In fact, I think the exact phrase was 'barely out of diapers', but there was no reason to be rude before I met them. I doubted it, but they could be lovely girls. I decided, since they had nearly reached me, that I would play the tough guy act first and see what they made of it. They'd have to get used to it with the other senior officers anyway, Jacob in particular; that guy was a whip cracker. I pitied anyone who got him as a team leader; they would have a tough trek ahead. I didn't think that even I could pass if he was assessing me, and I'd told him that at dinner a few nights ago. He had just laughed and told me that he would probably be the same with me. That had made me laugh.

"You must be the Americans," I said sharply, slightly more aggressively than I had intended and the brunette flinched at my tone. I was trying to come across as polite but aloof, so I wouldn't embarrass myself by doing something stupid, and I let my harsh facial expression relax fractionally. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw the girl with the beautiful black cropped hair stumble on the step she was climbing and the blonde girl caught her before I had the chance to move. What was I thinking? Granted, she was beautiful, but I had no business noticing it. There were rules in this place to prevent anything happening, and she wouldn't want someone like me to pursue her anyway. I was sure she had a boyfriend back home, or boys lining up to date her. I was nowhere near her league, and I shouldn't even entertain such ridiculous thoughts. I shook the insanity out of my mind and focused again on being the informative welcome party I had been requested to become for the afternoon. "Unfortunately General Whitlock couldn't be here in person but he sends me in his stead. I am Lieutenant general Whitlock, and I would like to welcome you to Sandhurst."

I extended my arm formally to first the blonde, and then the brunette in turn. After swiftly shaking each of their hands and then finally turned to the little angel to their right. As I grasped it, despite it being clad in a grey leather glove, I felt a spark of the same electricity I had felt before. It was stronger this time and I could tell, from the little gasp I heard from her, that she felt something too. I held on for a fraction of a second longer than was strictly necessary, reluctant to release her tiny hand, but then dropped it and averted my gaze. I then saluted to James, a mere formality instead of courtesy, and spoke again quickly to diffuse the awkward atmosphere I had created.

"Let's go inside," I offered quickly, turning away towards the solid oak double doors and they slid open on my slight hand signal. It was slightly childish to continue the old tradition, but it was nice to see the surprise and admiration on the face of visitors when they saw the doors appear to open magically. It really was one of the perks of the often monotonous job I undertook here. Obviously, once inside, the 'magic' became clear but the initial impression was worth it.

I strode away to a safe distance and then quickly smoothed down my uniform to remove any wrinkles, turning back to watch the group who were now huddled around James and whispering together. I felt strangely jealous of the smarmy Lieutenant Colonel, and I ground my teeth in irritation. I wanted the beautiful pixie girl to pay attention to me the way she was to him, eagerly hanging onto his every word. I realized then that I wasn't simply being a jealous teenager. I was being a bitchy teenage girl, and it was pathetic. James had a lot more in the looks department going for him, and I knew neither of us could help that, but it still made my blood boil.

I contented myself instead to watching the girl who had reignited all these unorthodox feelings in me as she walked slowly along, leaning in towards the centre of their little circle to hear the conversation. Every now and again she spoke, or nodded, and every little movement of her head or lips caused shivers down my spine. It was mesmerizing to watch and impossible to look away. Only when she finally looked directly at me did I look away and gather my thoughts.

I was an idiot. I was getting jealous of James for controlling her attention but I was his superior officer for God's sake. I didn't have to stand and watch them like this; I was in control of this situation. As soon as the girl saw me watching her, for she must indeed have seen despite my evasion, she nudged her friends and they hurried to catch me up. James grabbed the brunette's arm and whispered in her ear, before disappearing into his barracks. Idiot! He should know better and I would have to warn her and her friends to read the rules and stay away from him. She blushed and joined her friends as I called to them to draw their attention back to me.

"Hurry up girls, please," I shouted. Bollocks; I sounded like a pompous snob. That wasn't a good plan of action. I had no choice but to continue now, since I had already fucked things up. "Your dorms are this way." I led them into the new cadet's barracks and upstairs to the women's floor. There I turned back to them and handed the nearest, the blonde, a room key. As I turned I glanced at the whiteboard pinned to the wall with room allocations on it. I knew which room they were in so I could begin to try and work out which of the names belonged to my angel.

I read the list quickly and then continued to hang room keys to the brunette. It wasn't Lauren; she had already attacked half the male, and female, officers on the base and was notorious after only a day. And it wasn't her minion Jessica, because I had seen her too. Lastly I knew that Angela Webber had yet to arrive and was going to be a bit late due to travel problems so I had only three names left. Rosalie… Alice… Bella. It could be any of them, but I planned to find out who she was, by any means necessary.

I handed her the last room key from my belt pouch and as I pulled my hand away she brushed my bare thumb lightly, me having removed my gloves when we entered the building. The surge of heat that rushed up my arm was momentarily overwhelming and I gasped, my eyes locking with hers once again. She smiled brilliantly, blinding me from seeing anything but her and my guard dropped for a second. I flashed her a rare smile of my own, before slamming the shutters down and regaining my composure. I wrenched my hand away from hers, startling her in my haste, but I needed to drop my hands to my waist to cover the raging hard on I was now proudly displaying to the world. It felt like my world had just exploded and I hadn't experienced anything this strong for a long, long time. This perfect woman was going to kill me before I even begun training. I just had to hope she wasn't in my group or I would just die of humiliation.

"The… the rule book, schedule and uniform are on your beds," I said rapidly, sure that she would probably already think I was a blathering idiot. I stammered repeatedly and was almost shocked when she didn't even giggle at the blush that was undoubtedly blazing across my face at the moment. Of course, she had to be a genuinely nice girl too. Like she wasn't perfect enough as it was. I had to get out of here, now! "Please, urm, read all the literature and report to the initial briefing on time…" I paused, hoping that if I waited she would insert her name into the silence between us. She surprised me, since I hadn't actually been expecting an answer, by replying promptly.

"Alice Brandon. It's Alice," she said, and her gentle voice washed over me like silk and honey. It was beautiful, just like her. I saluted her, already ticking off the name in my mental list and she smiled again.

"Alice," I whispered as I staggered dazedly down the stairs, not quite as quietly as I had intended, and I hoped she hadn't heard anything or had already gone inside. It would be just my luck if she rejected me before I had the chance to think through the crazy thoughts in my brain. I didn't expect her to return the… obsession, I guess, that I had for her but I could dream, right?

Two and a half minutes later I collapsed onto my bed in my single suite of rooms, which was unsurprisingly already occupied. There were very few individual rooms on site, besides the General and his wife's section, so my newly formed friendships had apparently extended to the use of my room as a bolt hole for other officers. The spare room key was under the mat, since you would have to be mad to try to steal anything here, and clearly Edward and Emmett had decided that their room wasn't exciting enough since they were both currently playing video games on my flat screen from the floor.

Edward looked up as I flopped onto the bed and laughed when he saw the state I was in and asked me a really stupid question.

"Excited, are we?" I shook my head irritably. For a smart guy he was really slow sometimes.

"What do you think, Edward?" I countered, and I saw his upside down face morph into a frown from my position flat on my back. "It's embarrassing." I wasn't normally an angry kind of guy, usually the mellow, laid back one of the group, but I was still wound up about Alice. Alice… my mind turned to mush, like a gutter minded adolescent.

"Who's the lucky gal you're panting after then?" asked Emmett, his thick Welsh accent making the idea in my mind sound even more filthy than it already was. It's not that I don't like the accent, I love Welsh people. It's just that everything sounds so much more suggestive when he says it. I blushed again, and Emmett's booming laugh joined Edward's.

"She one of the new American cadets," I admitted, and they stopped laughing abruptly. I was glad, but depressed to see that the problem was clear to them too. Cadets were off limits. "Guys, I think I'm in love…"

**AN: Comments are greatly appreciated. I will do these again some time, maybe from EPOV or EmPOV, if you guys liked it. Thanks for your support.**

**PS. I will not be able to update more than one or twice in the next month because I have my GCSEs, so they come first. Anyone British and fourteen or so will know what I mean, and believe me when I saw that I'm stressed out. I hope you understand. Thanks.**


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: I have nothing interesting to say so I won't say anything. Enjoy…**** Oh, and my exams are going good for those who asked.**

RECAP: It was gone eleven by the time I hung up, and Bella was already out for the count, so I whispered goodnight to Rosalie and curled up in my bed. My mind raced, flickering images of Jasper flashing across it, and I wondered briefly why Jess and Lauren hadn't come back yet, but eventually I fell asleep and dreamt of Jasper and what I would do to him if I got my way.

RPOV

"Oh fuck off, bitch," I moaned as the door slammed shut and I heard soft footsteps from the direction of the beds on the other side of the room. I heard a disgruntled huff and then a pillow came from the complete opposite direction to hit me in the side of the head. I sat up and groaned, clutching my head in irritation. It wasn't that the pillow had done any damage to my head, but it had sure done damage to my pride. "What?" I growled, looking around for someone to blame for the impromptu wakeup call.

"Look," came Bella's voice from the bathroom and I looked up to see her pointing towards the beds opposite ours. I assumed from the angle that she had hit me with the pillow and decided, this time, to let it slide. Always the humanitarian, me. I followed her gaze over to the bed nearest the door, where a girl nearly as petite as Alice was unpacking her things into the locker by the bed. I gasped and threw off the covers as she turned to see us standing there, almost as if she hadn't heard our not so quiet conversation behind her.

"Hi," she said, sending a shy smile in first Bella's direction and then mine. Then, she pulled out a pair of ear buds, that I hadn't even noticed, out of her ears and disconnected the headphones from her hot pink iPhone. Wow, that's a bright colour, I thought to myself. I was clearly still not quite awake. I hate pink. What time was it anyways? I looked over at the alarm clock on top of my locker to see the time read 6:00 am. That wasn't too bad. We had to be up at 6:30 anyway.

"Hey," Bella replied, and started to head over towards her, attempting quite successfully to brush her teeth and walk at the same time. "You must be person number six." She stuck out her free arm, the one not cradling the toothbrush protruding from her mouth, and the girl shook it politely.

"I'm Angela," she said softly, and I grinned at her as she looked over my way. She was a shy one, but seemed nice enough; not like the stupid bitch and her bag carrier that we already shared the room with. Well, Jess was nice too, but was obviously too attached to Lauren to save. Angela, on the other hand, we could easily prevent the misery of being put upon by Mallory. "And you are?"

I looked up, startled to find both her and Bella staring expectantly at me as I sat staring gormlessly into space. "Rosalie, but Rose on a good day," I told her, and she nodded her head thoughtfully. "What accent is that?" I asked absently, sure that I recognized it. I just wasn't sure why though.

"Oh, that? That's just my plain old Cockney accent." She dismissed my enthusiastic question with an embarrassed flap of her arms, but I still couldn't remember where I had heard it before. She sighed and I felt a bit guilty. She clearly didn't want to talk about it. "Um, well you may have heard it in a film or something." She thought for a moment then snapped her fingers together as if she had just remembered something. "Billy Elliot."

"What?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"Billy Elliot, dumbass," Bella giggled and then, seeing my vacant expression, elaborated. "We watched it in Lit class one time, remember? The ballet dancing British guy that you thought was cute when you were twelve," she trailed off, waiting for me to remember. I did, now.

"Oh, yeah," I said quickly, not wanting Angela to think I was both blonde and dumb. I mean, I really can't help the blonde part, but I do _not_ have to display the whole package. "I remember." It wasn't what I had been thinking of, I was sure, but I did recognize the similarity now. I got up, now that Bella clearly wasn't going to use the bathroom again, and excused myself for a minute so that I could shower and dress. On the plus side, the clothes weren't as bad as they could have been. We had a choice between a tight black tank top and a slightly baggier grey long-sleeved one, so I chose the black. We were on seduction patrol after all; no need to cover up any more than I had to. I considered pulling it down as far as it would go and pulling up the cups of my bra so they peeked out of the top slightly, like those sluts do in the movies, but decided against it and just left it alone. I wanted to seduce a guy, not whore myself out to one.

After concluding my little internal debate, I pulled on the regulation black spandex shorts and army issue socks and boots. I deliberately, however, ignored the regulation underwear. Grey flannel panties? Urm, no! Finally, I headed back out into the room and sat back down on the bed.

"God, Rose," Bella said in a scandalized tone as she walked past me. "I hope they make you put more clothes on. You look way too hot in spandex for them to allow you to walk around like that. None of the men will be able to look away."

"That's the idea, hun," I said flippantly, and she rolled her eyes playfully at me as she bent over to unlock her cubby. "You look awesome in yours too."

"Thanks," she said, now sounding embarrassed and I realized that it wasn't Angela's accent that I recognized, but her tone. Bella had gotten the same tiny, shy voice hundreds of time when she got embarrassed that we had just heard Angela. Bingo.

"I mean it," I assured her totally honestly, and she stood up again. She did look really pretty. Then, unexpectedly, the shyness vanished from her face and she grinned evilly. Her eyes flicked away from me, towards the bed between us and I echoed her expression immediately, catching on quickly.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked, knowing that Bella would respond the same way she always did to that question.

"I think I am," she replied, and then turned to Angela who was still unpacking. "You up for a bit of fun, Ang?" Angela looked startled, but pleased by the nickname and after puppy-dog looks from both of us nodded her head slowly.

"Excellent," I said, standing up and grabbing an empty plastic cup from on top of my locker, as Bella and Angela, after a brief pause, did the same.

APOV

I ran my hands lightly down the sides of his chest, covered only in a tiny, black wife beater. I could feel the rock-hard, yet smooth contours of his toned abs and stomach, and my mind was doing somersaults at the thought of seeing the perfect that was only hinted at. I knew that this was a dream, and that I actually had no idea what his abs looked like clothed or not, but I didn't care. I could imagine perfectly well; until I had the opportunity to see for real. There was no doubt in my mind that I would see him naked, or at least partially, and my confidence fueled this extremely pleasant dream.

I traced my fingers down to the hem of the shirt, which had ridden up to reveal a sliver of pale skin that enticed me more than I could explain, and began to slowly tug it up further. I couldn't explain what I found so sexy about his pale skin, both in this dream and from what I had seen earlier, but I thought it was god damn gorgeous. All the British guys that I had noticed so far, both here and at home, seemed very pale compared to their more tanned American counterparts, but it definitely suited them. Jasper in particular; I couldn't imagine him any other way. I smiled up at him, and he bent his head down towards mine. I leant up on tiptoes in anticipation and as his lips brushed against mine I felt, instead of soft warmth, a freezing cold sensation spreading across my face and neck.

I gasped, spluttering to catch my breath through the deluge of water flooding my nostrils, and flew upright in bed. My face was soaked with icy water and it had dripped down inside my nightshirt and onto my pillow. Bella, Rosalie and a pretty girl I didn't recognize surrounded the end of my bed, and all three held dripping plastic beakers in their hands. Bella looked a bit embarrassed and jumped back as soon as she saw I was awake, and the other girl looked terrified, but Rose had an evil grin on my face and I knew immediately whose idea this was.

"Rosalie Lillian Hale!" I screamed, shoving off my blanket and throwing myself at the nearest clump of hair I could reach. "How could you?" She shrieked and giggled, attempting to escape my wrath. Needless to say that I may be small, but I'm not defenseless. She had a 'teeny' headache when I finished, but she deserved it.

"I'm so sorry," a voice said from behind me, and I turned to see the other girl standing just behind me. I must have still looked rabid because she flinched, before taking a deep breath and starting again. "My name is Angela, and I'm beyond sorry. I hope you'll forgive me for being' such a berk." I hadn't got a clue what berk meant but nodded anyway, assuming she meant well. She was obviously a nice enough person for Rose to attempt to corrupt her, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

"When did you get here?" I asked, forcing myself to be polite, because I was still angry and didn't want her to think I needed anger management.

"About twenty minutes ago," she informed me, and then seemed to remember something. "Actually, I've got to finish unpacking. I got a bit…" She glanced pointedly at Rosalie, and smirked. I liked her already. "… distracted." I nodded again, probably looking like a moron, and headed into the bathroom to shower and change. After I had pulled on the same outfit as Rose and Bella both wore, and rolled the shorts up several times to stop them falling down, I came out to find that the others were ready to go and waiting for me.

"Come on," Rose hassled, as soon as I stepped through the door, and I hurried over to join her after stashing my stuff in my locker. Wordlessly, I followed her through the door, and the four of us made our way down the stairs to the ground floor. Once outside, we quickly realized we had no idea where to go. Fortunately, Angela then spotted several other cadets coming out of on of the other barracks and we followed them a short distance behind trying to look nonchalant, like we knew exactly where we were going.

Two or three minutes later we walked through a set of huge wooden doors that could have been a miniature replica of the main entrance, and found ourselves in a huge cafeteria with a low roof and grey, bare walls. There were at least thirty long tables arranged perfectly symmetrically and most had a smattering of people on them. We grabbed four spaces at one end of the table nearest to us and then Bella stayed behind, on Angela's instruction, to guard the places. She told us that it was the only way to get a good seat, and that we would see what she meant. I was curious as to why she knew so much and decided to ask her when we sat down, but for the minute I was starving.

"What do you think will be for breakfast?" I whispered to Rosalie, who shrugged and joined the back of the long queue that had formed a few meters from the nearest serving hatch.

"No idea," she whispered back. "But I guess we are about to find out." When we reached the hatch we each grabbed a spoon and I took an extra one for Bella, and then collected a bowl of porridge and a slushy cup filled with white sludge from one of the serving ladies. Once we had everything piled onto a couple of trays we wound our way carefully back to Bella and sat back down.

"What the fuck is that?" Bella asked, picking up one of the flimsy, transparent plastic cups complete with lid and bendy straw, like the ones you get cold drinks in from Starbucks. She wrinkled her nose and examined the contents dubiously, as if she half expected it to bite her, and then put it back onto the tray gingerly. Angela didn't seem to have a problem and started slurping the thick pulpy liquid happily, whilst she explained its contents to Bella.

"It's a protein shake," she told her and Bella still looked blank. "We do a hell of a lot of strenuous exercise during the course, and this gives you protein really fast. It's what athletes drink if they want to bulk up and trust me, you'll be grateful you drank it in a few hours." Bella's eyes widened at the exact same time as mine and Rose's did and we all grabbed for the drinks and started sipping them earnestly. I did not want to collapse in front of any hot guys, although damsel in distress didn't seem all that bad. A good back-up plan to have on standby, I thought.

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Rose asked after a couple of minutes of frantic slurping, asking the very question I had been thinking but not saying. "I mean, first the seats and then this." She shook the slushy thing slightly, as if to emphasize her point.

"Well," Angela said sheepishly, turning beet red. Another trait she shared with Bella… and Jasper, incidentally. I wondered where he was. "I did fourteen weeks of this course last year, and then I had to retire before finishing, so I know how things work." Oh my God. Poor girl.

"Why did you retire?" I asked bluntly, then realized that my question could be taken rudely, or be insensitive if it was an embarrassing or upsetting reason. "Sorry, you don't have to say if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. I retired because I broke my shoulder during one of the night exercises," she said, like it was no big deal. "That's why I was late this time. I had to visit the doctor who treated me in Camden to check that I was alright to do the course again." I gasped, shocked by both her words and her blasé attitude to her injury. That must have hurt, and we would have to do that same thing too. Shit. Looking from Bells to Rose I could tell from the shell-shocked expressions gracing their own features that she were just as scared now as I was.

"No big deal!" I squeaked. "I'm not going to survive this hellhole. They'll send me home to my parents strapped to a gurney." Angela laughed at my sudden panic and flapped her arms as if to calm me down.

"It's fine. It's not so bad if you know what you're doing. You have me to help with that." I turned to face her sitting beside me at that, and hugged her around the middle, tucking my face into her shoulder like a little kid.

"You have to save me," I moaned, and she patted my hair awkwardly. She was obviously a bit uncomfortable with my abrupt assault so I loosened my grip and let go of her waist. Then, I heard a snicker from behind me and turned around to see on of the most beautiful and humiliating sights I have ever seen in my life. Jasper 'Freaking' Whitlock stood just feet from the table clutching a protein thingy and surrounded by the other four team leaders. They all had identical smirks on their faces, except for the blonde girl who was staring at me with obvious distain.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" she said haughtily and then the huge, hulk of a guy who had caught Rosalie's eye grinned widely.

"Unless you girls are, hmm," he coughed deliberately and loudly, winking at me and Angela who looked as humiliated as I felt. "Busy," he finished, trailing off implicatively. I shook my head quickly, clearing it of the haze that Jasper caused and managed to stammer a response eventually. I have no idea what I said, my brain fried as it was, but it seemed to work anyway because they all began to sit down. Somehow (thank you Jesus or Muhammad or whatever), Jasper ended up sitting right next to me, and although it had to be coincidence my thoughts went completely mushy. I was a sitting vegetable and the most gorgeous guy I had ever set eyes on in my life was sitting next to me. Could my life _get_ any worse?

"Talk," Rose hissed from opposite me, and I glared daggers at her. She wasn't helping and I was panicking, and she realized that as I did and shut up. I carefully arranged my expression so I at least looked like my body housed a competent brain, and smiled serenely at Jasper who was watching me curiously. He must think I'm a complete psycho and would wish he wasn't sitting there.

"It's Alice, right?" he asked softly, and I nodded dazedly. I would have agreed to just about anything that man said right about now. Argh. I was totally obsessed already, and I had only met him yesterday. I was a mess. Bella was the hopeless romantic, not me.

I glanced at her, and saw that at least some things never changed. She was staring slack jawed at one of the other officers and even Rose was stealing furtive peeks at one of them when she thought no one was looking.

"Are you okay?" Jasper asked me, and I focused quickly back to his beautiful face. His brow was furrowed and I wanted nothing more than to caress the crease it made and smooth out the worry in his face. It was too adorable.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled, and the radiant smile I received in return made my insides melt even more than they were already. "I'm great." I heard a snort from Rose's direction and I knew I was acting like a love struck fan girl, but I didn't care. I was in love, and it didn't even matter that I knew nothing about him.

**AN: Firstly, review. Secondly… okay, I promised flirting with Alice and Jasper, but I didn't quite get there. Alice will ****get it together in a minute and, believe me, she can flirt for England (Excuse the Anglicism, I should probably say 'for the USA'). That will, however, have to wait. I'll try to update sometime at the end of next week because I have a couple of days off, but don't hold me to it. **

**PS. Berk means idiot (the tamest variation I could think of) for anyone unfamiliar with the term.**

**PPS. I am not even going to attempt the idioms and stuff that go with any of the accents. The cockney one is beyond impossible, and it will be easier on everyone if I just stick to Received Pronunciation (Queen's English) with the occasional slang word.**

**PPPS. This is a long AN. Anyway, for the person who asked, I actually have no accent. My parents forced me to see an 'accent specialist' and although I live in the heart of the Midlands I apparently have failed to pick up any of the three native regional accents surrounding me. Basically I'm a freak who talks like Prince Charles, but I'll live. Sorry for rambling. I'll go now.**

**Charlotte-xoxo**


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: Still in the thick of my exams, so it's short again. I'm one the final straight now though, so longer chapters will follow soon. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled, and the radiant smile I received in return made my insides melt even more than they were already. "I'm great." I heard a snort from Rose's direction and I knew I was acting like a love struck fan girl, but I didn't care. I was in love, and it didn't even matter that I knew nothing about him.

APOV

"So," he said, and I almost missed the words that followed. I was mesmerized by the way his lips curled up into the most perfect smile I had ever seen on any man's face. It seemed to light up his face from within and, as I stared shamelessly at him, I could see his flawless skin seem to glow. It accented his beautiful, wavy blonde hair in a way that should be illegal and I felt my body begin to melt. Even if I didn't get a chance to kiss him, or have my very merry way with him, I would die a happy woman. I had glimpsed an angel, and it was love at first sight. "You and your friends are from the United States, am I right?" Gah! That accent just made me want to jump him here and now. It was entirely too sexy when he looked like that, and he seemed like a nice guy too.

I looked back up into his gorgeous eyes and saw him sitting there patiently, as if waiting for me to say something in answer. Oh, God, he had asked a question. Um, what had he said? I hadn't been paying attention... at all. Shit! I started to panic, and then Rose spoke up, saving my ass from being humiliated in front of Jasper.

"Yep, that's us. I'm Rosalie, that's Bella," she said, gesturing to herself and to Bella in turn. Then her hand snuck across the table, gripping my arm and pulling me sharply towards her. "And this is our Alice." She ruffled my hair in what was an outwardly affectionate gesture, which would normally have caused me to rip her head off, but it allowed her to whisper to me without anyone overhearing. "Get a grip Allie, or I might just be tempted to sample the blonde myself." I looked at her with a horrified expression on my face, and she winked playfully. I glanced back at Jasper, and saw with embarrassment that he was watching the conversation with amusement playing over his features. I knew that she didn't want him, but I didn't doubt that she could make good on her threat.

"You wouldn't," I hissed back, and she laughed loudly. All the other officers at the table, including the one who had caught her eye yesterday, turned our way so she wrapped the conversation up quickly.

"I'm kidding, genius, but you need to screw your head on straight so you have a chance of screwing the hottie." I rolled my eyes, in a move that reminded me strangely of Bella, at her crappy word play, but followed her advice anyway. She was right, I did want to screw the 'hottie', and I knew I was acting like a fucking wallflower so far. I shook my head once as I turned back to the beautiful man sat beside me, and turned on the patented Brandon charm. Granted, I wasn't as good at it as Rosalie, but I could hold my own.

"Yeah, and you are?" I asked in my most friendly voice, waiting until the opportune moment to bring out the sexy voice. I wanted to have a backup plan, incase flirting didn't work. I saw Jasper gulp and his smile falter for just a second, probably because he had just taken a sip of his protein shake and those things were nasty, and then he rearranged his face back into an easy smile.

"I'm Lieutenant General Whitlock whilst I'm on duty," he said proudly, and I shivered. What I wouldn't give to see him after he got off duty, or even whilst he was still on duty. Mmm-hmm. Then he surprised me by leaning forwards. I gasped under my breath, a big part of me hoping that he was going to kiss me, but of course he didn't. Instead, he smirked and whispered something in my ear. "However, my mom calls me Jasper, if I'm not in uniform." I giggled at his feeble attempt at humor, and lifted my head to see Bella staring at me with a bemused look on her face. I surprised myself by winking at her, then turned back to Jasper, who was now engaged in conversation with the bulky guy I had heard 'so much' about from Rosalie. He really was huge.

"What was that?" Bella asked me, as I turned my body, slightly disappointed to end the conversation with Jasper, so it was flush with the table. Literally flush, because my cheeks were burning. "You two looked cozy!" She spoke the word as if it was a codeword for 'down and dirty', and I blushed even more. I didn't have to say anything, because Bella nodded knowingly without a word from me.

"Um, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but we need to go or we're going to be late," Angela said, almost sounding scared to speak. "First session starts in five, but I guess that most of you already know that." She smiled sheepishly at the officers and Jasper, who suddenly began to stand up and clear away their trays and rubbish into the rack that was conveniently situated behind us. Angela stood up too, and the three of us girls hurried to follow her.

Rosalie, just because she could, weaved through several people until she stood beside the huge guy that Jasper had been talking too. Simply because she has no shame at all, she bent over slightly to push her tray into a free slot on the rack, leaving her ass on full display to the man mountain. Oh, and that guy stared, but who could blame him. It wasn't illegal to look at what was on offer, just that he couldn't touch, and look he most certainly did. As she stood, he shifted uncomfortably and I knew that she knew that she had him. She finished off the signature Rosalie move by flicking her hair in his direction and stalking off without a second glance.

I wished for a moment that I had that kind of confident, and then decided that one of her was enough for a small town like Forks to handle. I had my own brand of cute that I could, and did, flaunt shamelessly. I didn't need the sex appeal oozing from every pore, attracting every man in the room, as long as I had enough to entice one that I liked.

Someone bumped into my elbow, knocking me slightly off balance, and I realized that I still had my tray in my hands and was staring blankly at the space Rose had vacated several minutes before. I steadied myself, grabbing onto the first thing my hand came into contact with, and breathed deeply. I disgusted gasp shocked me and I jumped, pulling my hand away and turning to face the person whose shirt I had just attached myself to.

"Do you mind, Brandon?" a cold, female voice snapped, as I came face to face with the blonde woman who was the red team leader. Her eyes were black with an almost reddish tint to them as she stared me down, and I took an instinctive step back. "I asked you a direct question, one that requires an answer."

"Sorry," I stammered, beyond flustered, and felt my face turn beet red again. "It was an accident. I was…" She cut me off by raising a condescending hand in front of my face before I had a chance to explain, and my jaw snapped shut. She didn't have to be so damn rude. I had apologized, after all.

"I don't want to hear anything else from you today, Brandon." She spoke down her nose at me, spitting out my name like it was an STD. "Now leave, before I put you on report before you have even started. You're not in high school anymore, cadet." For a moment I considered opening my mouth to complain, but thought better of it and kept silent. I nodded contritely at the bitchy woman, wanting nothing more than to wipe that sneer off her snooty, if perfect, face. Then, I stepped around her and hurried off towards the door of the cafeteria, wanting to put as much space between her and me as I could.

As I exited the room, I realized for the second time in under an hour that I had no idea where to go, and looked around worriedly. I couldn't see Bella, Rose or Angela anywhere and I was surrounded by a crowd of scarily tall cadets and officers that had no idea that I existed. There were just too many people, and I started to hyperventilate, panic washing through me. I hadn't had a panic attack since third grade, and I was terrified of having one now. That day had been one of the worst of my life, and I had no desire to relive any of it. I could feel myself growing fainted by the second and knew I would pass out soon.

Just as I began to see gray around the edges of my vision, someone grabbed my arm and I jumped. Then, soft breath across my ear and just three words relaxed me more than I would have thought possible.

"Are you okay?" Jasper asked, walking around to stand beside me.

"I am now," I replied softly, smiling up at him.

**AN: Thanks to those who asked; my exams are going okay. Please review or PM me with feedback, I really appreciate it. Until next time…**


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: So sorry for going AWOL on you guys. ****I'm back now though, and this is the last short-ish chapter. I promise. Excuses below…**

* * *

RECAP:

APOV

"Are you okay?" Jasper asked, walking around to stand beside me.

"I am now," I replied softly, smiling up at him.

* * *

BPOV

The second that I saw Rosalie start to prepare the big, burly officer for her own personal method of ensnarement, bending over suggestively and flicking her long blonde hair, I got the hell out of there. Just seeing her be that forward with the poor man was too much for my fragile self esteem to handle, and my cheeks blazed as I imagined myself in that position. Only, if I had attempted something that flirtatious, I would have probably have fallen flat on my face or head butted someone in the stomach. Not a clever idea on my first day.

Shaking my head at the uncomfortable, yet somehow still arousing, image of trying to do a booty drop whilst pressed up firmly against the beautiful bronze-haired officer, and him laughing at me, I started to walk towards the door through which all of the other cadets were now leaving. I thought I spotted a flash of bronze hair disappear around the doorframe as I approach but, when I couldn't see anything outside, I assumed that I was just imagining things. I also couldn't see Alice anywhere to find the black team, so I just started following a man I didn't recognize. I hoped vehemently that I would spot Alice soon, but unfortunately I soon found myself surrounded by a group of people that I didn't recognize in the middle of a large soccer pitch.

"Excuse me," I said timidly, tapping the nearest person on the back gingerly. I didn't really want to ask for directions and seem like a moron, but I wanted to be late even less so I gritted my teeth and waited for the tall man to turn around. When he did, I had to blink several times to convince myself I wasn't seeing things.

The guy who stood in front of me looked so young that I could hardly believe that he would be allowed to enter a training programme like this. He couldn't be older than about sixteen, or seventeen at most. He had a cute, baby face and a messy tangle of hair, longer than my own, tied with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. It looked like it would benefit from a good wash and blow-dry, but the scraggly, rugged look seemed to work for him. I continued to stare at him for several minutes before he cleared his throat uncomfortably, and I realized that he expected me to speak.

"Sorry," I stammered, my blush making an unwanted appearance yet again. God, that was annoying. "But aren't you a bit young to be here?" Then, my brain caught up with my thoughtless word vomit and I gasped in horror as he laughed. "Oh God, I didn't mean to say that out loud. I wanted to know if you knew where I could find the black team." I couldn't believe I had just insulted this complete stranger, but thankfully he didn't seem that upset.

"I can't help you with your team, sorry, but I will answer your question," he said kindly, and I sighed. I began to shake my head, and opened my mouth to tell him he didn't need to do that, but he ignored me. "I turned seventeen about three weeks ago, and I applied for this programme the second I left school. It's been my dream to be an officer since I was eight, and my mom was so proud when I got into Sandhurst."

"You left school at seventeen?" I asked, confused now. That was young, wasn't it? He shook his head patiently.

"No, I should have explained better, since you have no reason to know anything about it. In Britain we can leave school at sixteen, after finishing our GCSEs, and then we can get a job or do something like this." I nodded, knowing what GCSEs were from my conversations with a girl from Cornwall, who had moved to Forks at the start of junior year. She had explained the whole system, which had puzzled me at first, and I liked to think that I was reasonably clued in to the concept now.

"Oh right, I knew that," I replied. "Anyway, I guess I'll ask someone else for directions. Bye." I started to walk away, then stopped and turned back to him. He was still standing there, watching me walk away. "I'm Bella, by the way. One of the Americans, if you hadn't already figured that out."

"Cool, and yeah, it's kind of obvious. The accent gives you away; you might want to work on that," he joked, making me smile in spite of myself. "I'm Embry, Embry Call. Oh, and you might want to try asking the Colonel, over there. I'm sure he will know where the team bases are." I saluted him as thanks, trying and failing to keep a straight face, and then smiled widely at my new acquaintance. He was a really nice guy and it was nice to find someone that wasn't so scarily anonymous, that I could maybe recognize next time I was stuck in an unfamiliar part of the campus. I walked through the crowd, which parted for me like the human Red Sea, over to a huge mound of equipment. A man was bent over beside it, his perfectly toned ass sticking up into the air towards me. I assumed that he was the Colonel, since everyone here seemed to be watching for him to make a move, so I walked around the bags of soccer balls and stepped over a pile of jump ropes until I was the right side to speak to his front end.

"Um, sorry to bother you," I whispered, not wanting to cause any more trouble. I would already in a shit load from the fact that I was bound to be late to join my own group, and I didn't want to do anything else that might put my foot in it. The man huffed in resigned irritation at being disturbed and stood up straight, and I gasped instinctively. I hadn't realized how close I had been standing, and I was now standing nose to nose with the last person I wanted to talk to. The flash of unusual bronze hair was the first thing I saw, glinting as he straightened up, and then I noticed the unmistakable scar that bisected his left eyebrow and down to restart just below his left eye. It was a thin, graceful scratch, but it also looked like it would have hurt to receive it. I had noticed it yesterday at the briefing but had somehow pushed it to the back of my mind, since I didn't seem to be able to picture it when my mind fed me images of his glorious features. The slightly puckered, pink line reminded me strangely of Scar from The Lion King, a film that I had loved watching with Renee as a child. It was the only imperfect on an otherwise flawless face, and it somehow made the Colonel more real and tangible to see that he was just as susceptible to injury as I was.

Almost without my permission my fingers began to tingle with a burning, aching need to reach out and caress the mark and the surrounding skin, to ask him how and when he received it, and I had to clench my hands into fists to restrain their subconscious movement. He stared expectantly at me, waiting for me to speak I realized, so I shook of the ridiculous thoughts swamping my brain and attempted to string a sentence together without sounding like a five-year-old.

"I'm… Urm, do you… Ahh, could you tell me where I could find the Black Team?" I finally managed to get out, after altering my approach to the question several times mid-sentence. Colonel Masen smirked at my obvious discomfort and at the blush that was sure to be spreading across my face. However, he didn't say anything so I tried again. "I'm sorry, but I am trying to work out where to go and I thought that you might be able to help me. You are in charge here after all."

"Yeah, sure," he said finally, after several long moments of him examining my face thoroughly. I wondered absently if I should swipe my hand over my face, since there was probably something on it from the way he was staring, but I was too distracted by my own examination of his face to take any sort of action to obstruct my view. I stored every detail I could see in those few seconds to memory, and then coughed softly. I would have been perfectly content to gaze into his deep green eyes for all eternity, but I had a niggling feeling that the other people around us wouldn't agree with me so much. He blinked distractedly and seemed to shake himself the same way I had done before, but I knew that it was just my imagination.

"The Black Team is… urm, what was your question again?" he asked, his brows furrowing in a way that made him look unbelievably cute. I was a little putout that he got distracted from our conversation that quickly but I figured that he probably had a lot on his mind, with the training and team stuff, so I cut him some slack.

"Could you tell me where I can find them?" I reiterated, slower this time so he could take it all in. I refused to believe someone that was allocated to lead a training camp for army recruits could be a tad slow, but it's always possible.

"Oh sorry, you're situated on the other side of the armory. My deputies can show you the way." His eyes lifted to sweep the small group of people over my shoulder. Then he must have caught sight of who he wanted to see, because he motioned them over. Instantly a girl almost as short as Alice materialized at his side, followed closely by a guy who just had to be her twin. You know the way some people look a lot alike, as if they could be twins, and then there are those people who are so identical that there is no opportunity for doubt. These two were most definitely the latter, from the line of their angular noses to the disconcerting burgundy tinge to their dark eyes, and aside from the obvious they had almost exactly the same build as well.

"This is Colonel Ryan," Edward informed me, gesturing towards the girl and smiling down reassuringly at me. The two of them, if I was being honest, freaked me out a bit and it was as if the Colonel knew how I felt. I wondered if he felt the same and was trying to wordlessly assure me that they weren't going to bite my head off, and strangely enough it did make me feel much better inside. The girl nodded her head stiffly at his acknowledgement, and then he swept his hand over to her twin. "And Colonel Ryan."

I stifled a giggle at that, although I wasn't exactly sure why I found it funny that they were both Colonels and twins, and they narrowed their eyes at me at almost exactly the same time. Creepy! Maybe they shared a brain, or something. I was sure that I had watched a documentary on that a few years back, about how some twins shared a scarily accurate intuition for each others thoughts and actions. I had never seen anything like it before, but now I was beginning to see what the presenter had been talking about.

"Miss…" he paused as if waiting for me to insert something. Oh, my name.

"Swan; Bella Swan," I offered quickly, and my eyes locked with his once again. It felt like such an intimate moment, at least from my end, that I had to look away after a moment. He took a deep, slightly hesitant breath before continuing with whatever he had been saying.

"Miss Swan needs directions to the range." He spoke directly to the girl now, so I waited patiently. "Would one of you mind showing her the way, please?" The way he asked made it clear that he was unsure as to her reaction. Regardless of his role as team leader, the three of them ranked the same and therefore I assumed that they were under no obligation to agree to his request. I didn't think I would want to ask these two for anything, if I was in his shoes… or pants. No! Focus, Bella.

She tilted her head to one side and adopted a pensive expression as she considered his request, then nodded. As she did so, lowering her eyes for a fraction of a second and breaking eye contact with him, a flicker of relief crossed his face and then was gone so fast when she looked up that I wasn't sure I had seen it. They must be some scary-ass people.

"We will both go," she said, speaking for the first time since her arrival. Her voice was clear and high like Alice's but, where Alice sounded sweet and friendly, this was cold and calculating. "I need to collect some more rope from the storeroom anyway." I tried to work out what she could possibly want rope for, until I realized that it would likely be for one of the fitness exercises that were strewn around us. I had been picturing the guy lynching a faceless victim, whilst she watched from the shadows, but felt immediately guilty for thinking such things. For all I knew, unlikely as it was, they could be really lovely people inside.

"Thank you so much," I said earnestly, and smiled nervously at her. She simply ignored me, eyes ghosting over me like I was invisible, and began to walk back the way I had come with her brother hot on her heels. And he was hot… almost Calvin Klein model hot, but the sinister air that he exuded put a rather large dampener on it for me. I imagined that dating him would be a lot like dating a serial killer with killer abs; one side almost completely masking the other.

"Come," she called back to me, and I hurried to catch up with them, since she was obviously a very impatient woman.

"Thank you Colonel Masen," I called back to him when I reached them, turning back to see that he was still watching us. "Sorry for disturbing you."

"Edward," he mumbled, and I almost missed the movement f his lips because I could no longer hear him over the noise from the cadets that stood between us. "My name is Edward." Then he was gone, lost in the sea of people, and I finally turned my face away. Edward. I don't know why he had told me that, a force of habit perhaps, but I was glad that I knew. I now had a first name to go with the face emblazoned across my mind, and this knowledge filled me with a wonderful sense of warmth and pleasure. I just had to make sure, if I spoke to or about him again, that I called him Colonel instead of Edward. God knows that, in private, Edward it is!

**

* * *

**

AN: Aw man, I'm so sorry about the unexplained absence. I have been really

**ill and busy over the last two weeks or so, and therefore my writing got put on the backburner for a while. I'll start on the next chapter right now, which will be the EPOV many of you have requested, so expect regular updates as of now. Again, I'm really sorry. Charlotte-xoxo**

**PS. Review and critique please, even if you hate me for deserting you.**

**PPS. My other ongoing story 'Greek to Grandad' will be updated very, very soon too. Thanks to all of you who read that for your amazing patience.**


	11. BONUS EPOV

**AN: This was actually harder to write than I thought it would be, so I hope I did it justice. Previews on offer for next chapter…**** see below.**

EPOV

I dropped the heavy bag of footballs with a groan, jumping out of the way as it narrowly missed my foot. I needed to focus fully on my job, and dropping heavy objects onto my feet was not a good start. Neither was the horror, or horrors that were currently making their way towards me. Two of the cadets, Jessica and… Laura, I think, were circling near where I stood like vultures.

The two of them had… shall we say, made their presence well and truly known a couple of nights ago. They had turned up, dressed in what must have been the most indecent dresses they owned, at the officers bar and proceeded to make a fool out of themselves. Whilst cadets weren't expressly forbidden from going in there, none of us who were present expected them to be there several days before the training course started. Not that I really should have been that surprised, to be honest, since they had done something very similar last year.

The pair of them, if I remembered correctly, were bloody terrifying. They had both failed to complete the course last year, when I had been a deputy, due to extremely inappropriate behavior and I have no idea why they would allow her and her friend to come back again this year. I didn't even know what they had done to be kicked out and frankly, judging on their conduct towards me, I didn't think I wanted to know. A flash of cleavage here, a sickening, flirty smile there; the memories of them were forever embedded in my brain, fueling my nightmares. It hadn't mattered that I hadn't reciprocated their advances, and had expressly told them to back off, because they had simply ignored my protests and outward revulsion. I certainly wouldn't have allowed them back, no matter how much money their parents funneled into the armed forces coffers.

They finally finished their bizarre, roundabout walk up to where I stood and stood uncomfortably close beside me. Jessica fluttered her eyelashes, which were liberally coated in… was that green mascara? I didn't even know that you could buy it in that particular shade of snot green, but obvious I was gravely mistaken. Urgh! My thankfully empty stomach lurched, and I praised God that I hadn't eaten too much for breakfast. I blinked furiously a couple of times, trying to wipe the image of her clumpy eyelashes from mind before it came back to haunt me, and realized that she was talking to me.

"Hi Edward," she said sweetly, and her voice might have sounded sexy had it not been accompanied by just over five feet of slut. She was also being way more informal than protocol, or my sanity allowed, so I pounced on that eagerly.

"Miss Stanley," I said curtly, and she flinched slightly. "I thought I made it clear last year that you are to address me by my rank." Nobody, save for my closest friends and superiors called me by my name, and she was most definitely neither. I was absolutely positive that I would never be familiar enough with any of the cadets to divulge my name to them, and I still wasn't sure how the two of them had gained that particular tidbit. I knew without a doubt that none of the other officers save for James, who was a bit of a man-whore himself, would have told them anything. They were notorious gossip around the coffee machine and everyone knew to steer clear unless they wanted to contract a plethora of sexually transmitted infections.

"Aw, c'mon Eddie," said the other, a slightly taller, peroxide-blonde I was sure was called Laura, with a pout. "What happened to you, babe? Last summer we got on _so well_." The way she emphasized her words made it clear exactly what she was insinuating about last summer, but I really wasn't in the mood to be eye-fucked today. She had made a fatal mistake in using the nickname that was reserved for my mom only, and I was terminating this conversation. I just had to get them to fuck off, and stay away from me. I would actually tell them that too, to fuck off or go fuck themselves, but I had a feeling that these girls might take my advice a little too literally.

"My name is neither Eddie, nor babe, Laura. It is Edward, not that you should use that either. I am Colonel Masen, and you know full well that nothing whatsoever _happened_ last summer." My voice sounded cold and harsh, even to me, but if it got the message across… I felt a bit bad about my tone because my mother had always brought me up to be courteous to all women, but it had to be done.

"B-b-but," she stammered, and I cut her of before she could protest.

"No buts, Laura, and the same goes for you Jessica. I am trying to be polite and professional here but, if you continue to harass me like last year, I will have no choice but to refer the matter to the General. Do you girls really want that?" I knew that, no matter what misguided attraction they felt towards me, they wouldn't want to get sent home again. Sure enough they blanched, and immediately they looked contrite and apologetic. Whether or not they really meant it or not the threat had worked, and I hoped that it would be enough to keep them, and any other girls who had the same idea, at bay.

"No Colonel Masen, I'm sorry," Jessica said solemnly, her eyes fixed firmly on her regulation boots. "We'll just go."

"Yeah, sorry," came the reply from the embarrassed looking girl to her right, who's eyes were trained on her own boots too. "Oh, and its Lauren, by the way," she added as an afterthought, the flirty tone creeping back into her voice, and then gasped when she realized what she had just said. "Oh God, I didn't mean to say that." She looked, in that moment, the most earnest and honest that I had ever seen her so I took pity on her.

"I'll let it slide this once, Lauren, but I don't expect it to happen again." I said and she nodded, smiling gratefully. I wasn't an idiot and I knew that their penance was most likely a total act, but it was good whilst it lasted. With one last wave to me, and a lingering sigh from Jessica which I ignored pointedly, they disappeared back into the small group that was waiting for me to finish setting up.

I shook my head and bent over, my back to the group so I didn't feel pressured to rush myself, and started to unload the skipping ropes from one of the bags. I made sure to arrange them all neatly in perfect rows, the inevitable result of my compulsive OCD, and the familiar, repetitive movement helped to settle my raging nerves somewhat. Now, I'm not normally the nervous type, but I was keen to impress my father by doing a good job as a team leader. I knew, despite his assurances otherwise, that I had been given this position because he felt obligated to favor his only child, but I was determined to earn it in my own right before the end of the course. All I had to do now was to keep focused on the job and not let anything, not even my friends, distract me from that goal.

I was so engrossed in my inner pep-talk that I didn't notice any movement until someone was standing right in front of me. I could see, from the small shoe size that it was a woman, and prayed that it wasn't Lauren or Jessica. If it wasn't important I figured that they would go away, so I proceeded to ignore the set of boots and continue with my preparations for the time being. Then, to my surprise, I heard a soft, timid voice speaking to me.

"Um, sorry to bother you," the mystery voice said hesitantly. I sighed and stood up, huffing as the strain on my knees caused pain to spike through my body. I reminded myself irritably, as I pulled myself upright, that I was no longer in as good a condition as I might like. Ever since returning home from active duty I had struggled with this kind of niggling pain, no matter how much therapy I had, and it never failed to make me feel weak when an attack struck. However, I had made the decision not to tell anyone here besides my parents about my issues, so I just had to suck it up and be a man.

I straightened up eventually and finally saw the face of the woman who had interrupted my private pity party. She looked very familiar, and I realized that she had been one of the girls that Jasper had dragged us over to sit by at breakfast. She had thick, glossy mahogany hair and deep… unnaturally deep brown eyes. I found myself staring into them uncontrollably, and had to blink to focus my mind. She was beautiful, and I found my brain becoming addled as I watched her watch me. What had I just been telling myself about distractions? I would love to be distracted by her… oh fuck!

I saw that, unlike me, she was still gazing at me and that made me smile in satisfaction. Then I realized what she was staring at, and the smile fell from my face and the pleasure was replaced by discomfort and insecurity. Of course she was staring at me, but it wasn't for the reason that I was hoping for. She was staring at my scar; at my deformity.

My scar was a lasting reminder of my failure in the line of duty, and every time I saw it in the mirror or saw somebody staring it brought back the memories that I fought so hard to suppress. The vivid memories of the only mission I had ever failed to complete, and of the men and women who had died as a result of my shortcomings. I had escaped with only a thin scar and minor muscular strains as penance whilst several of my closest friends hadn't been so lucky, so having people staring at it was a sore subject for me.

Clearly this girl was no different from the countless women through the years who had seen this blemish as an extreme turn-on, or the complete opposite, and had therefore not taken the time to notice anything else about me. Shame, since she was really gorgeous. I was thankful then that she was a mere cadet, and so unavailable, so I wouldn't be tempted to make the same mistake again. That, I think, was the main reason for Jessica and Lauren's fascination with me, and therein also lay the main reason why I felt no attraction whatsoever towards either of them. I could only hope that one day a woman other than my mom would see me for more than my battle wounds.

"I'm…" the girl began to say, then appeared to change her mind and begin again. "Urm, do you…" She blushed furiously and I found myself grinning at her stammering, in spite of everything. I couldn't explain it but, now that she was looking me squarely in the eyes, I felt more at ease than I had for a while. That sensation therefore made me uncomfortable, so I consequently found myself confused by the bizarre conflict of emotions rattling around in my mind. "Ahh, could you tell me where I could find the Black Team?" she finally managed to choke out, and I grinned again. Third time lucky, eh?

She stood there waiting for my answer, but I couldn't answer. She blushed again, and I was helpless to do anything other than watch the fresh flush of crimson bloom across her pale skin. She was almost as pale as me, a rarity for someone not brought up in this part of the world, and the contrast of colors was fascinating to watch. I just wanted to watch her all day; screw my training session.

"I'm sorry, but I am trying to work out where to go and I thought that you might be able to help me. You are in charge here after all." She spoke fairly slowly, but I caught less than half of her question. I knew that she had asked me a question and her reference to my authority had triggered me to come up with some sort of response. The only problem now was remembering what she had asked. I thought hard, and then remembered something, which I latched onto hoping that I was on the right track.

"Yeah, sure," I said slowly, trying to give my unhelpful brain time to feed me more information but it was not forthcoming. I began to lose myself into her eyes again, which was less than helpful considering that she probably thought I was an idiot anyway, so I shook my head and blinked to focus myself. I seemed to have done a lot of focusing myself in the past twenty minutes or so; maybe I had finally lost the plot completely. "The Black Team is… what was your question again?" I finally had to concede defeat, as annoying as it was to admit. I hadn't got the foggiest what her question had been.

"Could you tell me where to find them?" she asked, drawing out the words as if she was talking to a kindergarten child. Great! She did think I was stupid. At least I could answer the question now, so I tried to patch up the few remaining threads of my reputation. Again, I didn't know why it mattered to me that she knew I had all of my mental faculties, but it did.

"Oh sorry, you're situated on the other side of the armory. My deputies can show you the way" I spoke quickly and then searched over her head for the twins. Frankly, I didn't like the idea of letting this beautiful girl go anywhere, but I had no choice. My cadets were starting to get restless and with good reason. I was keeping them waiting too long.

I saw them standing together off to the side of the group, looking pissed off as usual, and they made their way over quickly when I caught their attention. They actually look relieved to have something to do, despite how much they loathed me, and for that I was grateful. I wanted to try and get on with the two of them as best as I can this year, since I was going to be their commanding officer. They didn't like it that they would be following orders from me, which I could understand considering that they held the same rank as me. The situation was highly unorthodox and I was almost as uncomfortable with it as they were.

"This is Colonel Ryan," I told the girl, who was already eyeing the twins nervously, as I gestured with my hand towards Jane. She was one scary woman, about as close to the devil incarnate as you could get. If I was honest she was one of the only people who truly scared me, not that I would ever admit that to another living soul. I deliberately kept the distaste that Jane and I shared for each other out of my voice for the girl's benefit, but it was a miracle that I managed it even half convincingly. It was no secret that we didn't… urm, see eye to eye and, as if to punctuate that sentiment, Jane chose that moment to throw me a hateful glare. I moved on swiftly, to avoid conflict, and gestured to her brother Alec to introduce him too. "And Colonel Ryan."

I swear than she actually stifled a soft giggle at my words and frowned as I tried to work out what was so funny. The twins clearly didn't find her reaction to them amusing either, and they narrowed their eyes at her simultaneously. I was used to their coordinated movements and brain sharing by now, having seen it in action more times than I cared to count, but the girl looked surprised and awed at the twin reactions. I frantically searched for something to say to diffuse the situation before Jane tried to hurt the girl somehow, and then realized that I still didn't even know her name.

"Miss…" I trailed off, hoping that she would insert some detail that I could learn about her. I wanted, for reasons as yet unknown to my conscious mind, to know everything about her and waited eagerly for her reply.

"Swan; Bella Swan," she replied sheepishly. Bella. What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman. I gazed at her for a moment, memorizing her face now that I had a name to fit to it, and then took a deep breath. Then I distracted myself from the urge to stare for too long by addressing Jane again.

"Miss Swan needs directions to the range." I told her simply, and she just stared at me as if deliberately testing my patience. I tried again. "Would one of you mind showing her the way, please?" I knew that she was well within her rights to refuse and would be a perfect way to undermine me, but conversely by refusing she might aggravate certain senior members of the administration. It was a Catch-22 and she knew it. She tilted her head to the side, looking creepier than anybody should be allowed to look, and then nodded. Relief flooded through me momentarily at her relatively painless concession, and then I hurriedly rearranged my features as she looked up. Emotion, in her own words to me at the formal dinner last year when she had been forced to sit beside me, was weakness. Woes betide me to show her any kind of weakness, because she would exploit it in a heartbeat… if she even had one; I had speculated to Emmett and Jasper one time that someone that heartless would have to be, well heartless.

"We will both go," Jane told me curtly, and I wondered again how such a girlie, feminine voice could be made to sound so God damn evil. "I need to collect some more rope from the storeroom anyway." The way she said the words implied something a lot more menacing than the reality, and I could see from Bella's reaction that she had succeeded in thoroughly scaring Bella. She stiffened for several moments before recovering her composure and smiling at Jane much more kindly than she deserved.

"Thank you so much," she said to her, trying to be nice, but Jane ignored her in typical Jane fashion and stalked off towards the range.

"Come," Jane called after her, and Bella started to jog to catch up with Jane's long strides. I felt an unexpected pang of rejection at her leaving without saying goodbye but, before I could react, she turned back to look at me.

"Thank you Colonel Masen, sorry for disturbing you," she called to me, and I sighed. She really was the nicest girl I had met in a long time, and I was willing to seriously reconsider my own self-imposed rules for her. I wanted to get to know her and work out what I felt, if anything.

"Edward," I said quietly, and I could tell from the slight widening of her eyes that he had heard me, or at least read my lips. "My name is Edward." Then Bella was gone, and both she and the twins were engulfed by the other cadets who were milling around impatiently. The second she disappeared from view it was as if a spell had suddenly been broken, and I realised what I had just done. She was a cadet, no matter what fucked up feelings I had convinced myself I had for her. She was strictly off limits, and I was appalled at myself for forgetting that.

She really was beautiful, though. Bollocks! What was I going to do? Now I knew how Jasper had felt a few nights ago when Emmett and I had made fun of him for telling us about the cadet he had a crush on. What were his words again? I thought that they might apply perfectly to me right now. Oh yeah; I'm screwed.

"Line up cadets," I hollered, and every head on the field snapped up to look at me. I wasn't in the mood for dawdling any more, thanks to my newly acquired bad mood. "Don't make me ask again," I hissed, and watched detachedly as pandemonium ensued.

**AN: Not a happy bunny is he? Hope you liked it. I have a particularly unique Edward that I'm going for here. He's slightly OOC but he's based partially on my cousin, so that's why. Anyway, review and tell me what you think. I'll try and update again within the next two days, and that seems to work for me as far as regularity goes. Next chapter we see Bella meet some new friends, and one special old one. Preview (a decent one this time, I promise) to anyone who guesses who, which shouldn't be hard if you concentrate. It's more of a shameless plea for reviews than an actual challenge. – Charlotte-xoxo**

**PS. As usual I am happy to explain any unfamiliar terms. Just review or message me.**


	12. Chapter 10

**AN: The first half of this was hard to write, so I hope its okay. Oh, and there is a good reason for the longer delay in posting. I had a bizarre dream about writing this story, and when I woke up I started writing chapter eighteen. Apparently I must have written the chapters in-between in my dreams. Go figure! Anyways, I got it right eventually so enjoy.**

**PS. Shout out to 'KeeSu' for both being the only one to guess correctly my question last chapter, and for being my 100****th**** reviewer. Please can you let me know if there's a particular POV you want me to do. At the moment the easiest possibilities are Emmett, Rosalie, Jacob or Bella, but I can try and do whatever you want. xoxo**

**On a similar note, thank you so much to everyone for getting me this far, and please keep it up. I truly and honestly love every single one of you, muchly. I couldn't do this writing malarkey without you all.**

BPOV

"So," I huffed, slightly out of breath from the pace we were walking across the campus but stilling wanting to try and make small talk. I left it at the one word, however, so that I wasn't intruding too much if they didn't want to talk to me.

"So, what?" asked the woman vehemently, and the man placed a hand on her shoulder as if to calm her. I was amazed that he was even keeping pace with her huge strides, a pretty amazing feat for such a short girl, let alone managing to touch her without it looking awkward. Maybe it was just because that was how it would have been if I had attempted a similar multitasking exercise; I was just plain clumsy. I would, despite never wishing to go near the Colonel with a barge pole, undoubtedly punch her in the shoulder, fall over, or worse. I'm sure that would make her like me so much more than she evidently already did.

"Never mind," I mumbled, and dropped my eyes, too embarrassed to make eye contact with either of them. I didn't know exactly why I was embarrassed, I mean it wasn't as if I had insulted them, but there was just something about them that made me feel intimidated. That's why I jumped, completely taken by surprise, when I heard an unfamiliar voice talking to me.

"Don't mind Jane," the male voice said, and I looked around to see the male twin staring straight at me. "She's just perpetually miserable." I raised one eyebrow at him, as if to convey my lack of surprise at his words, and he cracked a smile. The warmth of the expression looked so strange and surreal on his originally hard-set face that I didn't immediately return it, and his face fell in response.

"It's okay," I told him, smiling widely after overcoming my initial brain freeze and he grinned again. Now that I could see what his handsome face looked like with a smile gracing it, I began to re-evaluate my opinion of him. The way his cheeks dimpled slightly almost completely erased the dark shadows beneath his eyes and the overall effect was very positive. I instinctively wanted to do everything I could to ensure that the smile remained on his face permanently; it made sure a nice change to his face.

"Alec, for god's sake," Jane snapped after a moment. We had stopped walking and she had turned around to watch the exchange between me and her twin brother. "There's no need to talk to the girl. You're not paid to be nice to them." Alec's face suddenly grew icy again as he glared at her, as if outraged at her outburst.

"Jay," he said soothingly, reaching out to touch her shoulder again. She intercepted his hand as it stretched toward her and brushed it aside, before catching his eye.

"No. Don't make me remind you of the conversation we had earlier," she said angrily, but in that moment I saw a flash of something almost akin to pain flash in the depths of her eyes. Alec must have seen something too, because he nodded and began to walk again without another word. Jane followed him after a second or two, leaving me perplexed. Why did Jane not want her brother to be allowed to smile? And what sort of fucked up control did she have over him that would force him to conform to her request without a fight? I didn't have a clue but I was determined to find out soon.

I was mentally psyching myself up to asking one of the many questions rolling around in my brain when we stopped walking… thank God! I thought my thighs were going to explode. Jane turned to me and looked me straight in the eyes, allowing me to see all the pent up anger and malice inside her. You know the saying 'the eyes are the windows to the soul' well that definitely applied to Jane, providing a view right into the charred black heart beneath. If I had thought I say some hint of another, more sensitive emotion before then I was wrong. There was nothing there whatsoever but hate and… cliché I know, but evil.

"The range is over there," she informed me, her gaze not shifting from me once as she lifted her index finger and pointed across to her left. I forfeited the strange battle-of-wills type thing she had going on by turning my head to look in the direction she was pointing, and I thought I spotted Alice in the distance as I saw a crowd of people similar to the one we had just left. Edward's team. I sighed in relief both at finding the right place, and at breaking eye contact with Jane. She made my skin crawl and I wanted nothing more right now than to go and take a long, hot shower. I felt like I had spiders crawling all over my body and in my hair, and barely restrained myself from combing my fingers through my hair, despite the fact that I knew it was all in my mind. There was nothing, not even the horrible woman next to me that I liked less than spiders.

"Thanks again," I said cheerfully, glad to see the back of one of them. I gave Alec a friendly wave and smile as I started to walk away from them towards the bustle of activity less than thirty feet away. His eyes flicked quickly towards his sister, so quickly that I wasn't a hundred percent sure that I had actually seen it, and then returned my smile a little too enthusiastically. There was something else that was odd about the way he was grinning at me, but before I could try to work out what it was Jane grabbed his arm. He looked away instantly, almost like she had been controlling his actions, and then they were walking past me towards a vast corrugated iron shed like the ones you see in old war movies. The three story tall metal door, emblazoned with painted white letters labelling it as 'Storage 4', rolled open as they approached, which I thought was strange. However, I had seen a lot of strange things since I had arrived here, and magical doors were not something I wanted to dwell on. One of them probably had a blipper or something, and I was just going mad.

I shook my head to erase the strange things dancing around inside it, and hurried over towards my group. I had finally found them, no thanks to my own superb intellect, and a quick glance at my watch showed me that I was nearly fifteen minutes late. Brilliant for making a good first impression and I knew that my team leader was the toughest on the course. Not good!

"Oh my God, Bells," Alice squealed as she caught sight of me and came running towards me. I hadn't pinpointed her exactly until I heard her voice, but I could now see that she had been on the fringes of the ground and looking out for my arrival. I realized that it probably had been her I had seen before, and she was definitely there now, and my heart got just that little bit lighter. I had honestly forgotten, in the excitement of meeting _him, _and the twins, that she was in my team too so I was a really nice surprise. At least I would know one person, and that made the whole thing the tiniest bit less daunting.

"I was so worried about you," she mumbled into my hair as she hugged me fiercely, locking her tiny arms around my neck so that I found it hard to breathe.

"Allie," I gasped, squeezing her shoulder to convey my discomfort since I didn't have enough breath to say anything else. She released me immediately, and blushed her very own shade of pink. Only, on her it made her look cute and on me it made me look like I had run a fucking marathon.

"Sorry," she said apologetically, and I waved her off. Alice was an extraordinarily strong girl for her height and build, and it was certainly not the first time that I'd been on the receiving end of one of her vice-like hugs. "Come on, we don't want to miss anything else." She grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the group. One girl was standing in the middle of the circle, holding a bucket of what looked like rags, and was passing them out. I couldn't see the team leader, Lieutenant General Black if I remembered correctly from reading the instruction manual, so I snuck into the circle without a word hoping to avoid any trouble. Alice winked at me from where she stood beside me, and I sighed. It seemed that my lateness would go unnoticed.

I had received my own rag from the girl with the bucket and was awaiting further instructions, when I heard a light footstep just behind me and froze. The person had stopped directly behind me and I could hear the sound of their breathing in my right ear. I didn't know who it was, but a tall, lanky boy who stood opposite to me swallowed loudly and stared over my shoulder. Shit!

"Miss Swan," a warm male voice said, sounding so close that it should have been coming from right next to me. I looked to the side, but all I could see was Alice staring straight ahead with a horrified expression on her face. Clearly whoever it was behind me was bad news, and I prayed that it wasn't the Lieutenant General. "So nice of you to join us isn't it?" He spoke up a bit this time and several people around the small circle we had made nodded shakily, all eyes fixed directly above my head.

I turned around to see who was speaking and found myself face-to-chest with a man in a tight black tank top and Capri shorts. He was so close to me that my nose actually brushed against his chest as I turned, and I couldn't see his face without stepping back. Now just as scared as the rest of my team mates looked, I decided that the best course of action was to feign ignorance.

"I-I don't know what you mean, sir," I said hesitantly, and he chuckled dryly. I watched his chest heaving as he breathed in and out, which was strangely calming. As odd as it might seem his body, or what I could see of it, looked strangely familiar to me. I told myself that it was yet another reason to suspect my impending insanity, and dismissed the thoughts as nonsense.

"Really, well let's see if one of your team-mates can explain it for you," he said, sounding for all the world like that was an entirely reasonable proposal. "Miss… Brandon." He obviously knew that Alice was my friend, because his tone made it obvious that he knew who would be the most awkward person to ask.

"Well," Alice said slowly. I looked back to see her staring helplessly at me, her pleading eyes telling me that she had no idea what to say. "Bella was a couple minutes late, is all," she said finally, after a minute's hesitation.

"Bella, Bella, Bella, that won't do," the man said chastising, like I was the biggest disappointment in the world, but I was no longer paying attention. I remember someone else saying my name like that, exactly like that, so many years ago. It could be him, could it? Instinctively I stepped backwards to be able to see his face.

_A cold, winter's afternoon sitting by the fireside in my house, curled up in a thick afghan beside him. Long hours spent hiking and trekking in the forests around Forks, cherished time free from adults with just him and me. I was about twelve years old when one of my dad's oldest friends came to visit for the summer, all the way from England. I had thought, at the time, that it had been a total waste of time for them to come so far just for a few weeks. I had been wrong._

_That summer was the summer that I forged a lifelong bond with his youngest child, a boy who was only a few years older than me. At sixteen he had been my idol during the time he was there, and I quickly became obsessed. He was never condescending though and, unlike most teenagers do with younger kids, he never seemed to grow tired of me either. In those three weeks we became as close as it was possible for two people of our ages, almost as close as brother and sister._

_I had been a pretty pathetic kid at the time, complete with a lisp and everything. It was several years, and copious sums of my parents money forked over to speech therapists, before I escaped that particular trait and the inevitable loser status that accompanied it at high school. Therefore, during their stay I had developed my own nickname for my special friend. Not that his name contained anything problematic to pronounce, I just used nicknames for everything back then. After our first afternoon had been spent watching old Marilyn Monroe movies, a symptom of having a father who only enjoyed watching sports and a mother with a penchant for dubious romance movies, and eating jelly, I had affectionately dubbed him 'Jelly Monroe'. Whatever his thoughts about the name were, he kept them to himself, and to be honest I didn't really care. All I knew was that if I called him, he would come running. Jelly Monroe… could it really be him?_

"Jelly?" I whispered questioningly to the man, who I was now thankfully able to see, and watched as his eyes widened in recognition for a fraction of a second before tightening again.

"What are you blabbering on about Miss Swan? Jelly indeed," he said, and my heart sank. I had been so sure that it was him, from the way he said my name and the shape of his body. Of course he would be bigger now, but I had been so sure… Don't be so stupid Bella, I told myself. There must be thousands of young men, about his age, who looked similar. Really, what are the odds? England may not be as big as the USA, but it's still pretty big. "Drop and give me twenty."

"What!" I blurted, and stared into his eyes. His golden brown eyes locked squarely with mine, and I searched them fruitlessly for some sign that this was a joke. He didn't really expect me to… did he?" This had to be some kind of joke. I was fifteen minutes late for fuck's sake. Even if I was that sort of person, which I most certainly was not, there were people watching! I wasn't going to just… Urgh. I have morals.

"It's not rocket science, Miss Swan," he was saying wearily, like it was the sort of thing he asked every day. I wonder how those people reacted, or what he got the male cadets to do instead. "I want you do twenty press-ups, as punishment for your tardiness." What? That was what he meant. Oh, shit. And I had thought…

"Sorry, sir, of course," I mumbled, and began to kneel down. Placing my hands in front of me, shoulder width apart just like Charlie showed me that one time I accidentally led him to believe I was interested in sport, I lowered my body onto them slowly. I wasn't unfit or anything, far from it, but it ached like hell. I hadn't been good at them then, to my dad's obvious disappointment, and I was even worse now.

"One," he counted calmly, and I willed my shaking arms to support my body as they straightened, pulling me back up again. I paused at the top for a second to compose myself, my elbows locked to support my weight, but then I felt a pressure on the small of my back. That-that bastard had his muddy boot on my back and was pressing it into the dirt, leaving me no choice but to attempt a second arm bend or risk them buckling beneath me. As I rose from the second dip I felt his foot pressing down on my back even harder this time, and I pushed back against it to allow my arms to lift me up to the starting position again. "Two." The third time I lowered myself to the floor I felt tiny beads of sweat forming on my brow, and by the time I reached number four I was shaking uncontrollably. His foot bit into my back harder each and every time and soon it was taking every ounce of strength I had to complete the press-up.

"Eight," was the call that greeted me after five gruelling minutes of strenuous perspiration, and after that I blacked out. Then I came to a minute or two later as Alice crouched over my head, wiping the sweat from my face. Her eyes were murderous as she glared up at the Lieutenant General and his expression matched hers almost exactly. They appeared to be engaged in a vicious slandering match and part of me wished that I could have stayed out a bit longer.

"What the hell did you do to her, you sadist?" she spat at him, and I almost laughed out loud at that one. Not one to mince her words, Alice was brutally blunt when she wanted to be, but I didn't want her to get into trouble for my sake. He seemed to be amused like I was, because his mouth curved up a fraction in a half grin that I knew without a doubt I had seen before. His eyes flashed to mine then, and it was almost like he knew exactly what I was thinking. Then he returned his gaze to Alice, his scowl firmly set back into place.

"She is absolutely fine, Miss Brandon," he snapped, and she twitched in anger. I hadn't seen Alice this mad since… well since that time that she got arrested. "There will be no damage to Miss Swan, I can promise you that. She just got a taste of some wholesome, healthy exercise. You'd better get used to it too, my dear, or you won't have a hope of finishing this course."

"Yeah, well," Alice started, then stopped and nodded. I had never seen Alice get bested by anyone or even speechless for that matter, and so it was an impressive feat to render her unable to think of a response to his perfectly reasonable answer to her question.

"Now, if you would be so kind as to report to Felix over there," he continued, as if she had said nothing at all. "He will be able to assign you a rifle, and then you can get busy. Miss Swan and I need to have a little chat." What now? I wasn't going to get in any more trouble, was I? I sat up a bit too fast and my head spun, causing me to grab Alice's forearm for support. She smiled supportively at me and helped me gently to my feet, before heading over to a huge guy with an armful of mean-looking guns that I assumed was Felix. Then the Lieutenant General pointed over at a medium sized hut that I hadn't even noticed on arrival. I followed him over to it and once we were both inside he shut the door behind me and dropped the heavy bolt into place across it.

I spotted a chair on the other side of the reasonable spacious room so I walked over to it, eager to place some space between me and the irate officer, but before I could move I found myself pinned in place. Then his arms were wrapped tightly around my waist and I was hoisted up almost a foot off the ground.

"Bells," he whispered softly into my ear, and I thought that I was going to cry. It was him; it had been him after all. "Oh God, Bells, I missed you so much." I was so overwhelmed by the whole situation that I didn't know what to say. I missed you too Jelly, more than you will ever know. Why did you never call me? How have you been? In the end I simply settled for the two questions that were weighing the most heavily on my mind at that moment.

"What was that shit outside? Why did you treat me like that, Jake?"

**AN: I hope you laaaaiiiiiked it. I'm surprised that more of you didn't guess this actually, but still. Please drop me a line and tell me what you thought. Thank you, and goodnight. There's a Mock the Week rerun marathon on Sky tonight, for those of you who have a clue what I'm on about, and what can I say? I am obsessed with Michael McIntyre, Russell Howard and Frankie Boyle. The latter will be sorely missed next season. xoxo**

**PS. I am a tad excited right now if you hadn't already guessed, oh and any definitions you want clarified just ask.**

**PPS. I would love to know your theories, if any, on the Alec-Jane mystery. Just sayin'.**


	13. BONUS EmPOV

**AN: Hey kids, I'm back. I'm feeling so much better now, and I've been up and about for a day or two now. Thankyou so much for all of the messages and wellwishes I got. If I never replied I'm so sorry, but it was quite painful to look at the screen at times. I spent the whole of the day writing for you and I've nearly finished the next chapter of 'Greek to Grandad' too, for anyone that's interested. I know that I haven't added to that one for months but I hope some of you will read it. I'll upload it tomorrow for your delectation.**

**Oh, and the next three chapters will be all about Emmett and Rosalie for anyone who is interested. I promise we will check back in on Jacob and Bella soon, but these two are feeling a bit neglected. Enjoy…**

**PS. We have a tiny smidge of sexual implication in this chapter, so don't read if you are REALLY sensitive. It's only a smidge, but it's the start of lots to come.**

EmPOV

"That line is pitiful, you pathetic maggots," I barked, morphing my usually calm features into an aggressive mask that I knew could intimidate every the most confident of new recruits. That initial fear would only last a few days, until the vast majority realised that I was actually completely harmless, but I liked to take advantage of it for as long as possible. That way, hopefully, I could ensure a healthy level of respect from the cadets in my team before we got too deep into the course. The officer training programme was by far the toughest way to enter the armed forces so, whilst they did need to trust me and feel confident enough to achieve their full potential, they also needed to understand that this wasn't just a walk in the park.

"Oh c'mon! It cannot possibly be that hard to follow a simple instruction," I exclaimed, not overly exasperated but still playing my part with very little effort. I didn't expect them to be able to follow all my instructions perfectly the first time around, but I had to admit that I was still a little bit disappointed. All I had asked them to do was arrange themselves in front of me in a straight line, straight being the operative word. The shambles in front of me had to be one of the worst attempts at straight that I had ever seen. Only three of my new cadets had their heads facing forwards, and these same three had arranged themselves into a reasonably straight, if short line to one side of their peers. Unfortunately for them, the rest of the group seemed incapable of emulating their decent effort and were still staggering around aimlessly in a variety of bizarre interpretations of the word straight.

I shook my head once more at the mayhem I saw in front of me, and then made my way slowly towards the three competent cadets to my left. I came to a leisurely stop directly in front of the brunette girl in the centre who I thought I recognised from my manual as Miss Webber. To her left stood a rather short boy whose eyes widened in terror as I watched. He I didn't recognise, but that wasn't all that unusual. I wasn't the brightest Crayola in the packet if I was being honest, and I knew that instant recall wasn't one of my strong points. I was always better at sports at school than academics but I wasn't stupid, I just had a bad memory.

The third person in the group caused my own eyes to widen in surprise as I looked at her, forcing me to grip onto my aggressive façade more firmly than I'd ever had to before. I was so used to displaying this front to everyone I knew, aside from Jasper, Edward and my mom of course, but just one glimpse of her face threatened to ruin that carefully fabricated disguise. I recognised her instantly, from the blonde hair and ice-blue eyes, and I had to look away to try and hide my embarrassment at the memory of our first meeting. She was one of the girls that had been sitting at the other end of the table from us this morning at breakfast, and she was also the girl from the tray racks afterwards. Just remembering what had happened was making me go bright red, so I hurriedly continued walking around the three of them so that their backs were now to me.

_I had just finished the last slurp of my protein shake and had gotten up to stack my tray away in the racks against the far wall. Jasper was still occupied with one of the girls sitting next to him, one of the new cadets, so I didn't think he would want to be disturbed. Edward was equally distracted by Tanya and, whilst he didn't look happy about it, he was busy talking too. I sighed and got up alone, making my way quickly over to where several cadets and officers were stacking away their trays. I selected an empty slot on the nearest rack and slid my tray into it. Then I turned around to head for the open door out into the courtyard, remembering that I still had quite a lot of preparation to do before I would be ready for my first session started._

_Therefore, since my mind was busy running through all of the safety checks and equipment collections I needed to organise, I almost didn't notice her until I was inches from her elbow. I stopped faster than I would have thought possible for a guy of my size and flailed my arms in the air desperately to try and keep my balance. The last thing I needed was to flatten a cadet, especially one who was as slim as she was. Whilst she was tall, almost as tall as me in fact, she was built like a supermodel and crushing her with several hundred pounds of muscle was probably not going to do her any good. I thought I recognised her as one of the girls on my table just moments ago, but I could see less than half her face as she looked away to her other side._

_As I stood there I saw her eyes flicker my way fractionally and thought that she must have seen me, but obviously I was mistaken. Instead of turning my way, like you would expect if a complete stranger was standing mere inches from you, she turned her back to me completely and started to bend over with her tray extended in her hands. Because I had been so close to her I didn't really have an escape option and her shapely ass brushed my leg softly as she stretched forward to put her tray into the bottom gap in the rack. I thought absently that it was quite strange that she picked that space when the rack was almost entirely empty, but the slight pressure I felt on my leg captivated most of my attention._

_I breathed out shakily as my body began to react involuntarily to this tiny contact and I had to close my eyes. This was so unlike me, I thought to myself frantically. My mama had brought me up to be respectful to women and this wasn't anything of the sort. Don't get me wrong, I'm no different from other men my age in terms of my natural reaction to a beautiful woman pressing herself against me, but I had never even see her face properly. I didn't know her name either, yet I had begun to react to the tiniest brush through two layers of cotton and I didn't have a clue what had gotten into me._

"_Oh, I'm so sorry," a soft female voice said quickly, and my eyes snapped up to meet hers instinctively. I hadn't even noticed that she had moved, I had been so focused on my reaction to her, and she had straightened up and turned to face me. "Am I in your way?" What? My mind scrambled to translate her question into something that I could understand in my current state of utter idiocy, and eventually I shook my head. I was sure that I looked like a complete idiot but I didn't care, because I could now see her whole face and it took my breath away._

_Her hair was a vibrant golden blonde and, although you could never be absolutely sure these days, it looked completely natural. It framed her face gently, perfectly complimenting the striking icy blue of her eyes and the soft pink of her skin. I forced myself not to continue down further, knowing that once I reached her shirt or, heaven forbid, her tank top that I would be unable to stop my groin from gaining possession of what was left of my mind, and met her eyes as steadily as I could._

"_No, it was my fault," I managed to stammer, and she grinned at my nervousness. There was no doubt whatsoever that she knew exactly where my mind was, which was predictably well into the gutter about now, and she was well aware that she was the cause. A girl that stunning would have to now the reaction she had, right? "I should have looked where I was going." I was still captivated by how beautiful she looked when she smiled and I had to blink a few times to allow myself to focus on what she was saying._

"_It's fine," she said, shrugging. She had an adorable accent that I could place as American, but not any more specifically than that. It shamed me to admit it to myself, and I would never say that to an American on pain of death, but all of their accents sounded the same to me. Two dialects were probably as different to an American as Geordie and Brummie were to me, but I was stumped. I made a mental note to research accents before I spoke to any of the other American cadets, but for now I tried to ignore my irritation at not being able to guess where she was from. One thing I did know was that all those Americans who said that my thick Welsh accent was attractive were beyond wrong. This girl's accent was just about the hottest thing I had ever heard in my life. I felt my little problem grow a little bit more pressing and I knew that I had to get out of there now._

"_I'm very sorry, Miss," I said politely, remembering at the last minute to be polite rather than use slang like I used to back home. At the academy where I had trained a while back we had been taught to speak eloquently, preventing the majority of the class sounding like brainless thugs, and I knew that my commanding officer would have my head if he ever heard me use slang in public. "I have to go, but it was nice to meet one of our exchange cadets."_

"_Yeah," she said amicably, stretching her hand out to shake my own, which I had extended without even thinking. "I'm Rosalie, by the way. Rosalie Hale." I smiled myself this time, glad that I had a name to fit to the face._

"_Emmett," I supplied in return before I had time to catch myself. I wasn't supposed to be so informal with the cadets, and it was against one of the first rules of conduct. "I-I mean, Lieutenant Colonel McCarty. It's nice to meet you too Miss Hale." I shook her hand firmly within my own huge fist, being carefully not to grip it too hard for fear of hurting her, and then I reluctantly released it from my grip. I smiled at the gorgeous girl in front of me one more time before turning to leave. She returned my smile immediately and then moved around me to leave too. "Bye," I whispered, way too quietly for her to have a chance of hearing, and then she was gone. I sighed to myself and then headed out through the double doors to my right and onto the path towards the store shed to pick up a bag of camouflage gear that I would need later._

Being out from under her gaze made it fractionally easier to clear my head, and I calmed myself briefly before returning to the front once more. Locking my expression in place once again, I rested my gaze on the other two cadets to avoid meeting her eyes. "Right," I snapped, and the terrified boy jumped back in alarm. He evidently thought that I was going to yell at them, so I relaxed my furious glare somewhat. No need to cause him any unnecessary discomfort, since he already looked about ready to wet himself. Surprisingly Miss Webber and R… Miss Hale looked calm and confident, which impressed me. It was rare to see that from the women on the course and it was refreshing to say the least. "Since you three seem to be the only ones who have displayed any sort of competence in standing still, I will allow you to avoid the discomfort that will follow this fiasco." At my words the tension in the boy's shoulders relaxed and he sighed in relief. "You will report to my deputy in a moment where she will begin your training." I pointed towards Heidi, who was perched on one of the boxes nearby buffing her fingernails. She looked for all the world to be completely uninterested in the cadets or me, but I knew that she disinterest in everything around her was just a well practised show. Almost all of the officers had façades of one sort or another to mask our various weaknesses and the two of us were no exception. Heidi tended to care a lot about how people saw her and detested the uniform she was forced to wear, so she worked unbelievably hard to make sure that no one saw any of that discomfort. It was only because she and I had worked together so much that I knew the truth, and I would take that truth to the grave.

Then I turned to the rest of my group who had all stopped their chaotic phaffing and were now watching me warily. I think that the majority of them were now aware that I was less than impressed by their efforts but, by simply scanning the sea of faces, I could pick out several who were blissfully unaware… for now. "As for the rest of you, I will not have incompetence in my team. Green Team has won the final exercise twice in the five years that I have been a part of it either as a deputy or more recently as the commanding officer. I will not have my reputation besmirched by anyone, do you understand me?" I glared fiercely at them, and several of the more canny ones nodded or mumbled in agreement. "I said… do you understand?" I hollered, and more of the pitiful group flinched.

"Yes, sir," came the garbled response, and I smirked. It was actually more fun to scared the newbies shitless than I liked to admit, but I stifled my grin as best I could. No need for them to get comfortable. I had to establish some ground rules at the get go, to avoid problems later. Heaven forbid if my team get called out as have no discipline at an inspection. The other officers would never let me live it down.

"Better," I said contemplatively, drawing out my 'anger' a bit longer. "However, next time I ask a question you will answer me with: 'Sir, yes sir'." I scanned my eyes along the row of cadets, and noticed with surprise that I actually recognised a few of them from their photos. "Now I assume that most of you know what a salute is. I expect you to show me within the next ten seconds." Let's see how they manage that task. It was the simplest thing that I could think of to task them with and if they couldn't manage it I thought I might actually cry.

About thirty seconds later they had all managed to formulate a salute, even if some were less than satisfactory. I nodded half to myself and then turned back towards my new favourite students to see that all three had a hand to their temple in a perfectly satisfactory salute. I was glad to see that their competence wasn't just a flash in the pan and waved Heidi over.

"Sir," she said, as she waltzed gracefully over to my side. Waltzed wasn't exactly the right word for the way that she moved but it was far too graceful to call it walking. Waltzing would imply a smaller frame than the tall one that she possessed… maybe sauntered was a better word for it.

"I would like you to take these three over to the arena and run them through a few drills. The standard exercises in camo, stealth and evasion. I will join you with the rest of this sorry lot in half an hour or so, once they've learnt some discipline. Okay?" I asked her, knowing that she wouldn't refuse. The arena was her favourite session on our timetable and to have a chance to run the exercises herself was a chance that she wouldn't pass up in a hurry. Heidi had narrowly missed out on her place as a team leader this year, and I wanted to make her job as my deputy as painless as possible.

"Sure thing, Em," she agreed enthusiastically, if a little unprofessionally, and I watched her lead the three of them across the field and through the gap in the hedge that led to the arena. I watched Miss Hale walk away with a wistful sigh, and I felt almost miserable as she disappeared around the corner. It really was the strangest feeling. I didn't even know the girl and I missed her when she wasn't there. I fought for the second time to control my features and morph them into something more becoming the ruthless officer I was supposed to be, and didn't bother turning around before I spoke.

"You have all better still be in salute by the time I turn around," I snapped, and heard the sound of rustling behind me as one or other of them hurried to lift their arm back up. I knew from personal experience that the position that the pose placed the arm in was uncomfortable at best and that an inexperienced cadet wouldn't be able to keep it up for more than ten minutes or so. Nevertheless, I would make sure that they did their best. I turned around slowly, and began to fix my gaze firmly on each of the seven cadets in turn as they all stared back at me. "The first one to lower your arm will stay out on the course with me after the session is over in order to learn your lesson. Unfortunately that will mean that you will miss your lunch too, so fair warning."

With that I walked over to sit on the crate that Heidi had just vacated, pulled out my penknife and started flicking it open and closed absently as I watched the cadets, waiting for one of them to give up and lower their aching limb so that we could all move on with the rest of the exercise. Despite it being necessary this was just as agonisingly boring for me as it was for them so I hoped that, whoever caved first, they would do it sooner rather than later.

**AN: I hope you guys liked it. My Emmett for this story is a little bit OOC in that he's a tad more intelligent than the original. I like to think that he can be a little bit brainless without being an idiot, so my Emmett will have a reasonable IQ. Also, all army personal are educated to a reasonable standard anyway so he can't be a total moron. Anyways, I hope that this doesn't upset anyone, but I think that cleverness is attractive in guys so hopeful it shouldn't.**

**PS. In the previous chapter one or two of you thought I was a bit odd. So, may I just clarify that the 'Jelly Monroe' thing and any other oddities are from my own personal history. I thought of myself when I wrote that part, and that was how I affectionately referred to the boy who would eventually become my ex-boyfriend for the first three years of our friendship. I thought it was cute at the time, so shoot me. If you can't remember that far back, don't worry. It wasn't important.**


	14. Chapter 11

**AN: I know it's been far too long (over a month!), but I honestly have no excuse other than that life got in the way. Sorry. More from me later. Enjoy… **

RECAP: With that I walked over to sit on the crate that Heidi had just vacated, pulled out my penknife and started flicking it open and closed absently as I watched the cadets, waiting for one of them to give up and lower their aching limb so that we could all move on with the rest of the exercise. Despite it being necessary this was just as agonisingly boring for me as it was for them so I hoped that, whoever caved first, they would do it sooner rather than later.

RPOV

It took every ounce of strength I possessed not to turn around when he was standing behind me, being so pathetically desperate to see his face again, and a few minutes later when our little group walked away across the field I had to physically pinch myself to avoid looking back. I snuck a quick peek after we had gone through a small gap in the hedge but it was too late, and the shrubbery blocked our start point from view. God, I was pathetic… and one hundred and ten percent head-over-heels for this guy. I had never fallen so fast before, and frankly it scared me. Actually what scared me most was the fact that the urge I'd had just a day ago to jump the first man in uniform I saw was fading fast, so my chances of winning the bet I had with the girls was looking to be the biggest mistake I had made in quite a while. I comforted myself with the knowledge that he was definitely interested; judging from our little 'interaction' in the cafeteria that was pretty clear even to me, so all wasn't necessarily lost.

"Okay kids," the woman who had led us over said excitedly. I guessed that 'kids' was just an expression, because she was not much older than us, but she looked really nice so I let it slide. She was gorgeous, just like the majority f the officers that I had seen whether male or female, and if she hadn't have had a whopping great diamond on her finger I would have felt a bit threatened. I had always been the pretty one at home, and whilst normally I would relish the competition, today I didn't feel like sharing. That was… if there was anything to share. For all I knew Emmett could be like, a monk or something.

I giggled to myself as a stream of images dancing through my head of Emmett dressed in a fetching array of cassocks and floor length robes. He managed to make every single one of the bizarre garments look unbelievably hot. I would have been happy, as odd as my thoughts had become, to stay in my little daydream all day but then someone shook me by the shoulder and my concentration was wrenched back to reality.

"Is there a problem, Miss Hale?" the officer asked me gently, shaking my arm to attract my attention. I blinked and then blushed as my eyes took in the curious expression on her face.

"Yeah, is everything okay?" Ben, the only boy to have passed Emmett's little test piped up nervously. Everything Ben said was nervous, that was just his natural default setting, but I could tell that he was genuinely concerned about the state of my mental faculties. He and the other girl with us, Angela Webber, were two of the nicest people that I had ever met. She had come up to me the moment that I had trudged across the field towards her and made me feel like less of a loner. Very few people in our group seemed to know anyone so having Angela there, despite the fact that I knew nothing about her, was encouraging. A few minutes later she had invited another loner from nearby into our little huddle, and this way we both met Ben Cheney. None of us knew him but somehow we managed to hit it off in less than ten minutes.

Now I've never really been the type of person to care much for others, besides Bells and Alice of course, so learning all about Angela's baby brother and Ben's love of Renaissance art was a new experience for me. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't all that boring, and it felt really good to open up to someone about myself too. We had just started to move on to the topic of our home towns when Emmett had called us to attention so I had made a mental note to continue the discussion later.

"Rosalie?" Ben asked again, his expression just as concerned as the officer's.

"Oh, sorry Ben," I muttered apologetically, flashing them both a quick smile to show that I was back in the land of the conscious. "I just got a bit distracted back there, but I'm awake now." I was beyond embarrassed to have been caught daydreaming about something as bizarrely mundane as that so I scrambled to think of an excuse to deflect attention from my stupidity. "I was thinking about… um." I said intelligently, but the officer just laughed.

"From the expression on your face I can guess at what you were thinking about," she said, throwing me a knowing, conspiratorial glance that told me that she knew exactly what my thoughts on her colleague Emmett. "And I don't blame you. Most girls feel the same way about him at some point." I hadn't the heart to let her down by telling her that wasn't actually what I was thinking, and it seemed to be a good enough excuse for her, so I just went along with it.

"Well, yeah," I said sheepishly, not having to fake embarrassment due to the fact that I was already beet red. "Anyway, what do you want us to do, boss?" I was surprised, but relieved, when the conversation switched almost immediately back to the here and now and the exercises we were meant to be doing. The three of us quickly go kitted out in a really ugly camouflage suit each, which smelled like it hadn't been washed in several months. In hindsight, it probably hadn't been.

I pulled up the collar of the formfitting bodysuit and snapped the shiny brass popper in place with little difficulty, then went to help Ben to zip his up from where he had got it stuck. The poor guy was clearly struggling, since all of the men's suits were designed for men more than a foot taller than he was. Therefore the only suit that fit his height was several sizes too tight, even on his slim frame. That, coupled with the fact that he was getting distracted watching Angela's arse waving gently in the air as she bent over, lead to him getting the zipper stuck in his t-shirt. I decided to be spontaneously kind and went over to help him, and made a mental note to see what sort of matchmaking I could get my nose into over the next few months. Ben blatantly had a thing for Angela, and if the feeling was mutual then I could do my good deed for the decade and give them a little nudge-nudge in the right direction.

"Righty oh, lets run through your guidelines and safety signals one more time, yeah?" said the officer, who had by now introduced herself as Lieutenant Heidi Martin, as she waved a hand to get our attention. "There might be only three of you, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Now, what is your basic hand signal if you need assistance?" We spent another five minutes rattling off quick-fire answers to all the safety stuff she had just briefed us on and then we were starting the real practise session. The Lieutenant told us that all we had to do was make our way to the target, an 'injured' dummy in uniform that we needed to 'rescue', without getting caught by the cameras that she was operating from the observation hut behind us. Easy, right? Not so much so.

Ben got 'killed' first, trying to make a dash for it after crawling through the thick undergrowth to the side of the field. We weren't sure what Heidi had meant by getting killed, but Ben definitely found out the hard way. Just seconds after breaking cover he was shot in the back by a silent but damn painful, by the sounds of his agonised yell, paintball gun. The blue-grey pellet struck him square between the shoulder-blades and covered his boiler suit in a thick, sticky layer of bright blue paint. He tripped and fell in what looked like action-movie worthy slow-motion, and Angela and I both gasped in horror. Despite my shout for her to stay where she was, Angela sprinted forwards and out in to the open to try to help Ben and was mown down by a bright orange shot to the leg. That left me all on my own in the exercise now, but with more than a little confirmation that there was at least a tiny romantic spark in both ball courts now. Perfect!

I pulled my mind from thoughts of how cute the two of them would be as a couple, which would be goddamn adorable, and tried to focus on the exercise at hand. I could see out of the corner of my eye that the rest of the group had finally arrived to the observation hut and were suiting up, whilst watching Angela and Ben limp and stagger out of The Arena. So named, because it has really steep sides leading down into a huge field full of trees and rocks and shrubbery, to imitate a normal outdoor setting, which makes it feel like you're in an arena whilst you are inside it.

Damn them for not waiting for another thirty seconds, then I could've made my break for freedom without risking total humiliation in front of the rest of my group, not to mention one Mr McCarty who would almost definitely be watching. Fantastic! I crept forward on my stomach glad, now that I had seen the mess that the mud and paint had made of the boiler suits that my clean clothes were covered up. I made a wide arc around the other side of The Arena as fast as I could whilst staying low, not wanting to keep them all waiting too long, and began to approach the dummy from behind. I figure that there might be fewer cameras this side, but that also meant that I was running out of undergrowth pretty darn fast. I was going to have to run for it at some point.

I finally reached the edge of the last bush and crouched down behind a rock that was positioned conveniently beside it. The thought crossed my mind momentarily that it did appear to be a bit too convenient, but I dismissed it as I took a deep breath and the adrenaline started pumping through my veins. I readied myself and then threw myself out from behind the boulder, running full pelt towards the centre of the large open space. Immediately I heard the whirring of a camera right behind me and realised that I had made a big mistake. I whipped my head around just in time to see a jet black rifle raise its nose to aim straight at my face. I threw up my arms instinctively to protect my face and neck, a survival reflex, but I could tell that it was way too close to be safe. It was going to hurt like a mother, no matter where it hit me. I saw, from a tiny chink between my elbows, it fire a tiny pellet, and then I was thrown backwards as it impacted in the centre of my stomach.

After that I remember a lot of shouting, and then one or two voices coming closer. My eyesight was blurry, and the pain was excruciation, yet somehow not unbearable. It probably wouldn't have been too hard to stay conscious, but when I heard the beautiful hushed tones of Emmett, I was more concerned about what he would think of my failure than my own pain. I had never felt anything even close to this level of attraction to someone before, but somehow I really wanted to make him proud of me. The thought of him being disappointed in me was almost unbearable.

"Are you okay, Rosalie," I heard his soft, concerned voice ask. I tried to speak clearly but my voice came out as barely a whisper. I just had to let him know that I had tried my best, despite my apparent failure.

"I'm sorry, Emmett," I said simply. Then, I fainted.

**AN: Okay, first. I am sorry for the huge delay. I am not back with a vengeance and have update both of my long overdue stories in the past few days. Secondly, Rosalie's injury is not a long term thing. She will be absolutely fine and I don't plan to cause long-term injury to anyone in this story. My other story, 'Greek to Grandad' has enough of that without it spilling over onto this one. Thirdly, review. I know I ask every time, but it really helps me know if you like what I'm doing or not. Even one word of positive or negative input means a lot. So, thank you to all the dedicated reviewers. I love you all.**

**xoxo**


	15. Chapter 12

**AN: Hey lovely people of the world. Not as long as I might have liked but somebody told me that they wanted some Bella and Jacob time, so I finished off this chapter at a suitable point and the next chapter will be Bella-centric I promise. It will also be uploaded as soon as I can finish writing it. Yeah, I have already started. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "I'm sorry, Emmett," I said simply. Then, I fainted.

EPOV

I sat in the observation chair in the hut, scanning the shrubbery around the edges of the Arena with a pair of binoculars and looking for signs of movement that might give Rosalie away as she attempted to complete the exercise singlehandedly. The other two cadets, a quiet, kind-looking girl and the shortest boy I had seen in a long time, that had been with her had been eliminated a few minutes before. I knew that Rosalie was smart, but I didn't expect her to complete the exercise now. In a group or even with a partner it was tough, but alone it was nigh on impossible. No-one that I knew of, not even an instructor, had braved the field of laser snipers and reached the middle going it solo. It was now just a matter of how far she would get. She could still impress both Heidi and I if she reached the inner ring of bushes without the rustle of branches or a leaf dropping causing an immediate game over in the form of a paintball to the helmet. Now if only I could spot her in that camouflage.

I felt a gentle poke on my arm and looked to the side to Heidi pointing over towards the far side of the Arena. I followed the direction of her finger and refocused my binoculars until I spotted a tiny gap between two hawthorn bushes that allowed the camo suit that Rosalie was wearing to be momentarily visible as she crawled past. Now that I knew where to look, I could see her fairly well but she wasn't moving fast enough to alert the cameras, sensitive as they were. Then I realised why I hadn't seen her before.

She was making her way, slowly and unbelievably patiently, along the farthest edge of the roughly circular pit, the opposite side to where the logical place to make a break for the middle was. That was why most of the guns and cameras where over there, so that they were far enough away from the cadets to not cause too much bruising. It was a miracle that, being where she was, she hadn't already been detected. I could see a camera just a foot or two from her current position, and the corresponding gun was a few feet further away to her left. As long as she kept moving away from them and didn't make any sudden movements she might have a chance at completing the challenge. She was very close and she obviously knew it, from the fact that she speed up minutely.

I was still watching her every move, as closely as the magnification on the field glasses would allow me, when I saw her pause behind a nearby rock and tense up as if she was about to jump out from behind. What was she playing at? If she ran for it from there she would be less than five feet from… I realised a split second before she launched her body up and forwards what she was about to do. I spun around, knocking Heidi out of the way from where she stood leaning on my chair watching the camera displays, and slammed my fist down onto the emergency stop button across from me on the control panel.

Unfortunately, the system took a few seconds to respond and shut down the exercise, and it took less time than that for the camera beside Rosalie to register movement and trigger the gun. I was out of my seat and half way out the door before I heard the shot of the paint pellet being released and then I was running. It was madness for me to care so much for someone I didn't even know, but now that was all regardless. Taking a pellet from that distance onto bare skin have hurt almost as much as taking a bullet to a Kevlar vest, and if it had struck her on the neck or head then it could be much worse. I had thought that she was wearing a visor but I could be sure until I reached her how badly she was hurt.

"Father, let her be alright, please?" In those few short moments, that stretched into eternity, as I hurried down the steep slope and out into the Arena, I sent up a quick plea to God for Rosalie's safety. I had been too busy to give much time to God over the past few months here, but I vowed then to make it right with my maker if only she was okay.

I finally caught sight of her as I cleared the trenches and camo netting just next to the fake soldier Rosalie had been heading for when she had been hit. She was lying on her side, about fifteen feet from the base of the gun turret with a huge purple stain blooming across her stomach and dripping onto the ground around her. My vision started to blur around the edges from staring so intently, and I vaguely registered Heidi overtake me and start talking got me, telling me to calm down. I could feel my breath coming short and sharp, but I couldn't calm down. I needed her to be alright… I wasn't ready to give her up just yet. She wasn't going to have any broken bones. That I could see from the point of impact just above where I thought her belly button was, but I also didn't want her to have to go to hospital and leave camp. I wanted to spent more time getting to know her, as selfish as that sounded even to me, and I wanted her to do the same with me.

"Are you okay, Rosalie?" I asked her gently, forcing my voice to stay calm as I reached her side and knelt down. She swallowed slowly, her throat rippling as she tried to speak, and then opened her eyes a crack to look up at the sky.

"I'm sorry, Emmett," she whispered, and only the wind blowing gently toward me carried the weak sounds to my ears so that I could hear her. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted. She was sorry? What was she sorry for? It was an accident. She had done amazingly well to get as far as she had, and I was thoroughly impressed with her effort, as well as the inevitable relief that she wasn't seriously hurt.

I turned my head until I saw Heidi standing a couple of steps away, giving me my privacy, and motioned for her to come and help me. She supported Rosalie's neck and shoulders as I lifted her slight frame carefully into my strong arms, just in case there was something damaged that I couldn't see, and then we jogged quickly back to the rest of the group. Rosalie wasn't heavy, not for someone who kept up a decent fitness regime, but it felt like I was carrying an emotional load that was much greater than I could bear on my own. I steeled myself and adopted a passive game face for the benefit of the other cadets. Her two teammates looked like they might throw up at any moment as Heidi climbed and I staggered up the final slope towards them, but Heidi went to them immediately and began to calm their nerves.

"Is Rose, oh God," Angela began to mumble as she saw me approach with her new friend in my arms, but Heidi laid a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"She'll be fine, but Lieutenant Colonel McCarty is going to take her up to the infirmary to rest for a while. I think she should be right as rain in a day or two, so don't fret about it. It wasn't your fault," she placated Angela kindly, smiling her special 'calming' smile at her. Angela visibly relaxed, but then Cheney piped up with his own equally justified concerns.

"It is our fault though, ma'am. We should have done better at the exercise," he said sadly, obviously disappointed with himself and his perfectly decent efforts. Heidi had already filled me in on their achievements today when I had arrived at the observation hut and both had done very well for complete novices. Their efforts should not be misconstrued as anything else, especially not by them themselves.

"No," I said firmly, causing Ben to jump skittishly and everyone else to turn their heads to look at me abruptly. I now had no choice but to finish, despite wanting to get Rosalie to the medic as soon as possible. "You both performed admirably and I will discuss your shortcomings, as small as they were at this stage for what little experience you have, with you both when I get back. However, I need to take Miss Hale to the infirmary immediately, so Lieutenant Colonel Martin will be in charge until I get back."

I saw a flash of silver out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to see a blonde girl giggling with her friend as I finished speaking. Her silver bracelet sliding down her wrist as she leaned in to whisper something to the equally vapid girl next to her was what must had caught my attention, and my already fractious temper snapped like a rubber band.

"Miss Stobbs! Please refrain from chatting to Miss Stevens whilst I am giving you a direct order in future, unless you wish to risk expulsion from my group so early in the course. You are already on dangerous ground after the incident less than a half hour ago, and I would hate to have to ask you to leave." I ground my teeth in a supreme effort not to say anything else because I knew it would lead to my court martial, and readjusted Rosalie in my arms as if reminding myself of what was important. I turned on my heel and stomped away, muttering things under my breath that would cause my poor mother to have a coronary if she heard me utter them around her.

"Oh, and that bracelet had better be gone when I get back too, Miss Stobbs," I called back as an afterthought. "Or there'll be hell to pay. For everyone!" I shouted, and then held my breath as Rose stirred uneasily in her sleep. "Sorry," I whispered much more quietly, and smiled as she relaxed again at the sound of my voice. I was crazy for this girl and I had absolutely no idea what to do about it, or her.

**AN: Okay, so really short, but I will post again tomorrow or Friday to make up for it. Bella and Jacob are going to have a heart to heart, for those who are interested. Yay, or maybe not! Hmm…? Thoughts?**

**xoxo**

**PS. I don't think that this chapter was my best work, so sorry about that if you agree.**


	16. Chapter 13

**AN: I'm honestly not to blame for the delay this time. wouldn't let me upload anything, so I sat at home like a lemon for several hours last week continuously pressing the upload button in the hope that it would say something different.**

**PS. Very strong language in the first half of this, so sorry if you're too young to read that sort of thing. If so, then you probably shouldn't be reading M fics anyways. Enjoy…**

RECAP: "What was that shit outside? Why did you treat me like that, Jake?"

BPOV

"I… I don't understand what you mean Bella," Jacob mumbled, looking puzzled. Seriously? He didn't know what I meant? The warm buzz that I had felt just seconds ago, from seeing Jake again after such a long time was fading fast. He was now just pissing me off by being so clueless and typical Jacob. He had never been one for cottoning onto things quickly; it always took him a few moments longer than everyone else to get the joke or realise that he'd said something moronic. Like now, for example.

"I mean the total bullshit outside just now, Jacob Black," I fumed, my eyes flashing dangerously. I could feel my cheeks burning scarlet from my irritation, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "You made me do press-ups until I fucking fainted." I felt a twinge of shame for my foul language, but decided that he deserved it.

"Bella, honey…" he started to say, but I cut him off with more spiteful words. They were spewing uncontrollable from my mouth and I knew that I should stop, but I couldn't help myself.

"Don't you honey me, you evil bastard. You always used to be such a nice guy, but I guess people change. Is that how you army bitches start to treat your friends when you become an officer? Is that what gets you off? Watching people you used to care about push themselves to exhaustion, whilst you try to break their backs by stamping on them whilst they are clearly already in pain." I broke off from my tirade and sucked in a shaky breath, having not bothered to take one since I started talking. Jacob looked shocked by my outburst, and I wasn't sure that he was capable of saying anything at all in response. Eventually, however, he gulped nervously and then began to explain.

"Not at all, Bella. That wasn't fair, and you know it. I can see, from the way you're avoiding looking me in the eyes, that you know that's not true. Let me explain, alright?" I sighed and nodded, but I had one more thing I wanted to make clear first.

"Fine, but please don't feed me a line of bullshit about how it's-just-your-job-and-you're-really-sorry-because…" My words jumbled together so fast that even I couldn't understand what I was saying, and I looked up to see if he was listening to me. His face was an inch from mine, a lot closer than I had expected him to be, and I gasped in shock. Then his lips crashed down onto mine, effectively drowning out the sound of my voice.

My brain fought valiantly to try to tell my body that this was all wrong, but it was too little too late for me to stop. I tilted my head to get better access and slid my tongue eagerly into his open mouth. His body was warm and hard, yet somehow soft pressed up against me like this, and I sank further into the kiss. I loosed one of my hands from where they were twined around his neck, so that I could run it through his tousled bronze hair. I had wanted to feel its silky smoothness ever since I had met him, and now I would finally get the chance.

My fingers came into contact with short spikes and I froze in confusion, my fantasy crumbling around me. Edward didn't have short hair, but… Jake did. I wrenched my lips away from Jacob's and staggered away towards the opposite wall from the one I had been facing, unable to form a coherent sentence even if I had known what to say.

"Well, that shut you up, huh?" Jacob laughed, and I turned around to see him smirking at me as he leant cockily on the table in the middle of the room.

"God, Jacob. That was so wrong on so many levels," I gasped. I still couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that less than thirty seconds ago I had been all over a boy who was like a brother to me.

"Like kissing your brother?" Jacob asked calmly, and I nodded. I knew that he had been the one who had initiated the… well, sexual assault on me, but I was sort of disappointed that he wasn't even out of breath. "Me too, only with a sister. I don't bat for the other team, I'm afraid."

"What?" I asked, totally confused, but Jacob ignored my mindless babble, and continued to speak as if I hadn't opened my mouth.

"Maybe now I can explain everything, Bella? I treated you like that for two reasons," he began, and I gave him my full attention now. I was eager to know now, what reasons he had for his behaviour. "Firstly, the point of this course is to push you to your limits, and if I hadn't done that then I honestly wouldn't have been doing my job properly. Secondly, if I hadn't have treated you like that someone would notice that I was giving you special treatment and then we'd both be in some deep shit."

"You didn't have to make me faint though, surely," I reasoned, but he just shook his head and smiled sadly.

"Unfortunately, I really do. To cause extreme physical pain, often culminating in syncope and/or vomiting, is one of the most effective methods with which to establish a sense of authority within a leadership role," he said solemnly. He looked deadly serious, but I could see that he was trying hard not to crack up with laughter.

"Right, okay," I giggled, and he cracked a smile too. "I would have said that you memorised that from a text book, but I find it hard to believe that any book would be that cruel. Even a book written for a place like this."

"Yeah… I may have tweaked it a tad," he admitted sheepishly, and I began to laugh uncontrollably. "But syncope and vomiting was a real part of the original, promise."

"What does that even mean?" I asked curiously. I had never heard the word 'syncope' before, and I was unsure of its exact meaning. I could probably take a pretty good guess though.

"What, vomiting?" Jake asked flippantly, and I snorted with laughter again. "I thought that you were supposed to be the smart one, darling'." It felt so good to be back with Jake after such a long time that I just couldn't keep the smile off my face. I had missed him more than I had realised, and now he was really here, so I let his crack at me slide for once.

"No, dumbass, the other word." I smacked him as hard as I could in the bicep, but he barely even noticed. He had really packed on some serious muscle in the last few years since I had seen him last.

"Oh, right, my bad," he said, in an awful imitation of my American accent, then switched to an extremely pompous British Accent like I would expect the Queen of England to have. "Syncope is the upper-class term of phrase for fainting, but then you wouldn't be expected to know that."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, playing along with his little game and pretending to be mortally offended by his insinuation. "Are you calling me common, Mr Posh Guy?"

"Why, yes I am, Miss Swan," he quipped back, and then backed away towards the door back outside before continuing. "What are you going to do about it then?" It took me a second to register the challenge, but then I took a step forward in the direction he had just retreated.

"Oh, you are going to get it now, Black," I said, and took another large step forwards. He took an equally large step away again, so that his back was pressed against the flat wooden door, leaving him nowhere else to go. Then, I paused as another thought crossed my mind. "Black?" Why did that ring a bell?

"Yes Bella," Jacob said slowly, as if talking to a five year old child. "That is my surname. Surely you haven't forgotten that already?" He looked even more confused as I realised what I was thinking of and grinned impishly.

"No, I know that," I said, all of the pieces finally slotting into place in my mind. "I knew I recognised that man! Jacob, I do believe that I met someone very close to your heart yesterday."

"All you would need to do would be to look in the mirror to do that, Bells, but I know what you mean," he said, clearly waiting for me to say it rather than spare me the embarrassment of spelling it out for him.

"Jacob, you wouldn't happen to have a parent in the counselling department here on campus, would you?" I asked, tapping my finger against my chin quizzically.

"Why yes, Bella, I would," he responded, reciprocating my simpleton expression perfectly.

"I reckon he recognised me the other day. Say hey to him for me when you next see him, will you?"

"Sure, but you could always…" Jacob didn't manage to finish his sentence because at that moment there was a sharp knock on the door. He sighed in frustration, and pushed himself up from where he was still leaning against the large wooden table. He opened the door and I could see Alice framed in the doorway. What could she possibly want? We hadn't been in here that long, had we?

"Bells," Jacob called to me, after several minutes of inaudible conversation, and I hurried over to join them. "You need to go with Alice, Hun." Alice's head shot up and I realised what that might sound like to someone who didn't know who Jake was, and I shook my head in irritation at my own stupidity.

"I'll tell you later," I told her quickly, then looked back to Jacob. "Why do I need to go?"

"Because Rose has been in an accident, and she asked for us," Alice said miserably, and I blinked stupidly at her. What? Rose? Accident? What!

"I don't understand, is she okay?" I asked, my breath constricting in my chest as the seriousness of this change of events set in.

"She's fine, but she wanted us to come and sit with her whilst she has a morphine injection," Alice explained, and I sighed. Rosalie was more terrified of needles than anything else in the world, and she would need at least one of us to be with her to be able to cope with an injection of any kind.

"Sure, I'll come now if that's alright with you Jacob… I mean sir," I said hastily, already half way out of the door on Alice's tail.

"That's fine Bella, but it will take you too long on foot. My quad bike is just the other side of this hut, so I can take you both," Jacob offered, and Alice shrugged in response. If it got us there faster, then fair enough. "Let's go then," he said authoritatively, and then swept out of the room.

We hurried after him as he shouted an apology to his deputy, a huge guy who was instructing someone holding a rifle a few feet away. He rounded the corner and we could see a huge bulky shape covered in a waterproof tarpaulin. Jacob pulled the cover off to reveal a huge red and black dirt bike, which we all climbed onto slightly precariously. A moment later we were speeding up a dirt track that I hadn't even noticed on my walk down here with my new twin 'frenemies'.

**AN: Hope you liked. Jacob and Bella's chat isn't over yet, but it felt like a good place to end. I'll upload again when I can, instead of making a promise we all know I can't keep.**

**Thanks also to the people who I have chatted aimlessly with over the past week. To the one expecting a baby, you know who you are, I hope you are alright and everything went/is going/will go well with the baby birth.**

**Xoxo**


	17. Apology and Explanation  Please Read

A massive hello to all of my beautiful readers who are still with me and have been waiting not so patiently for over four months to see if I would upload anything ever again. I really wanted to let you know why I have been missing in action for so long and apologise for that, so here goes.

One of my best friends committed suicide just over three months ago after suffering really horrific internet bullying. I hope that you can understand that I took her death really badly and have been receiving therapy for depression over the last couple of months. I also stopped using the internet completely for nearly three months, up until two days ago. I checked my emails yesterday to find that I had nearly 8000 emails, of which over 1000 were from , and I realised that I have been letting down a lot of people including you guys.

I have finally started to come to terms with my loss, although my friend's loss in my life will undoubtedly continue for many years to come, and have therefore decided that I will return to writing my stories in the next couple of weeks. I hope that you will all understand why I did what I did and will continue to support me as you have done up to this point. God willing no other tragedies will befall me, my family or my friends, and I hope to complete both of my current stories by the end of 2011.

Thank you for not giving up on me. xoxo

PS. I am very sorry about all of the reviews I have received in the past 3 or 4 months that I haven't replied to, for obvious reasons. I will attempt to go back and reply to all of them individually as I have done ever since I started writing fan fiction, but bear with me as it may take some time.


	18. Chapter 14

**AN: Hello world. Is anyone still out there? I wouldn't blame you if you weren't. Massive apologies for my absence and I hope I can start to make it up to you guys. Thanks for reading this and, if you have come back out of curiosity to see if this is actually a new update or just another long AN, I hope you enjoy this bit of shameless, feel-good, mushy, clich****é, Rosalie/Emmett romance****. Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to apologise to you. Xoxo**

RECAP: We hurried after him as he shouted an apology to his deputy, a huge guy who was instructing someone holding a rifle a few feet away. He rounded the corner and we could see a huge bulky shape covered in a waterproof tarpaulin. Jacob pulled the cover off to reveal a huge red and black dirt bike, which we all climbed onto it slightly precariously. A moment later we were speeding up a dirt track that I hadn't even noticed on my walk down here with my new twin 'frenemies'. (**AN – This was a direct quote from last chapter but I wish I hadn't used that word: 'frenemies'. It sounds lame now. I promise I'll never use it again.**)

APOV

The instant that giant monstrosity of a dirt bike stopped moving; I was clambering off and jogging towards the infirmary double doors, with Bella hot on my heels. The man who had driven us up, the one that I made a mental note to grill Bella about later, hesitated a moment to turn the keys and take them out of the ignition, as I glanced back, but then he caught up to us and opened the door for the two of us. Quite the gentleman I mused, and then felt immediately terrible for even thinking that whilst Rosalie was hurt.

I charged down the corridor, nearly knocking over another cadet who was coming towards us cradling what looked like a sprained wrist. She winced and cried out in pain, then staggered back to avoid being mown down by Bella and her officer friend.

"I'm so sorry," I shouted, feeling awful for hurting her more than it must have hurt already. Then I was through another door into the single four bed ward of the infirmary. Evidently they didn't have many injuries in this place, so they didn't need so many beds. Either that, I thought with a jolt of fear, or they sent people away to hospital and Rose would not be able to stay with us. We'd only been here a couple of days, for heaven's sake, and I didn't want to spend the summer without her.

"Where is she?" I practically screamed to the lone nurse, who started towards us as soon as we stepped through the door.

"Miss Brandon, would you please desist with the shrieking?" she said sternly and momentarily I was taken aback by her knowing my name, but I quickly recovered and went back to glaring at her impatient. "I don't want to have to make you leave, when Miss Hale asked so nicely that you be brought here, but don't think I won't if you don't calm down."

She made a small gesture with one hand towards the bed nearest the large window to my left, and I turned to see that this bed had an occupant that I hadn't even noticed. Rose was lying back on a pile of pillows and was so pale that it was no wonder I hadn't noticed her lying there. She damn nearly blended in. Well, all except the massive bruise-purple stain covering the front of what looked like an outdoors overall. My throat seized up and my eyes filled with unexpected, and shockingly fast flowing tears. She was bleeding to death, and had been for some time going on the size of the stain, and no one was doing anything to help her.

I didn't know what to do, and my eyes darted around the rest of the room in a crazy attempt to find something, or someone who could do something to help her. I wanted to scream and shout but it was like the air had been ripped from my body and all I could do was clench and unclench my jaw as fear gripped me. A slight movement caught my eye and I noticed yet another person that I hadn't even realised was there until that second. An impossibly large man, who looked vaguely familiar to me, stood framed by the sunlight streaming through the window, casting a huge hulking shadow on the floor next to Rose's bed. He didn't even notice the three of us standing there, staring at Rose, or in my case at him. He only had eyes for Rose and she was equally captivated by him, although her eyes looked weary and not totally focused. They were gazing at each other with an intensity that I would have expected from two people who had known each other for years, and intimately at that, not for what couldn't possibly have been more than a day. I make a note almost automatically to question Rose tonight, after I had talked to Bella about her own man-mountain, and that mundane thought snapped me out of my fog.

Suddenly, as I opened my mouth to say something, Rose turned her head to look at us. It looked like it pained her to move, and I felt another stab of sadness and pain for her. She must have heard me speak before and I had spoken so loudly I wasn't surprised. My inner monologue had seemed to go on for minutes but I couldn't have been more than a few seconds since I had spoken, because the man's head snapped up at the same time, and his eyes locked with mine. I held his gaze pointedly, letting my fear and confusion and overwhelming anger to burn through the air towards him and I refused to break eye contact.

"Alice, Bella. You got here faster than I thought you would," she whispered, and her tone sounded almost guilty, though hoarse and weak. She was blushing when my gaze flicked back to her on the bed, and I couldn't understand how she could act so normal and Rose-like whilst she was, you know… dying!

"Yeah, and I'm not going to let you die," I said insistently, moving to confront the big man as I had been going to before Rose had spoken. "Why are you just standing there? Help her!" Then I watched, not believing what I was seeing, as his lips twisted up in a smile and then he was snorting with laughter, leaving me dumbfounded and more than a little furious. I heard a soft cough from Rose to my left and then she was laughing to, but that stopped as abruptly as it had begun as she choked and shook with pain. I looked from her to him and back, but neither seemed able to speak, Rose gripping the sheets and trying not to cry and the man struggling to stop laughing.

"She is not dying, my dear," the nurse said calmly, and laid a hand reassuringly on my shoulder. "She got hit at close range with a paintball and will have bruises for a couple of weeks, but she'll be back on her feet in no time, now you are both here and I can finally give her this morphine injection." I gaped at her and tried to think of something remotely intelligent to say, but nothing came to mind, so I stayed quiet. Instead I nodded at the nurse, and hurried around to the far side of the bed to take Rosalie's hand gently.

"Oh thank God," Bella mumbled through clenched teeth behind me, and then she did the same of the other side of Rose. An instant later both of us joined hands with each other across the bed, making sure not to lean on her, and Rose relaxed significantly, allowing the nurse to step forward to gently insert a needle into her right forearm and inject the dose of morphine her body needed to recover.

It was an odd phenomenon but ever since we could remember, the three of us linking hands had connected us not just physically but emotionally, allowing us to support each other. When I had broken up with my first boyfriend, when Bella had totalled her first car, when Rosalie had lost her virginity long before she wanted to; our little circle had gotten us through all the hard times and it was something none of us could explain, but neither could we live without it.

"Yeah Alisssss…" Rosalie's words slurred together as she succumbed to the morphine's sedative effects. "It's jusst paint." She said the word paint like a small child, emphasising the 'p' and 't' more than necessary, then she seemed to think of something important and lurched up off the pillow and wrenched her eyes open as much as she could.

"Emmett? Where'd he go? Emmett?" she called worriedly, as if half expecting him to have left, but in seconds the big man that must be Emmett had pushed himself away from where he had been leaning against the window and had hurried over to crouch beside her so she could see that he was still there.

"It's okay, I'm here Rosalie," he murmured softly, seeming to forget it that moment that the rest of us were even there, and then a quizzical look passed across his features. "Hey, how'd you know my name?" he asked.

"Doesn't matter," she said, still managing to smile coyly at him despite being nearly out of things by now. "Please don't leave me?" she asked weakly as her eyelids started to droop and Bella helped her lie back down with a tentative hand on the shoulder.

"Nonsense, Miss Hale," the nurse, who I could now see had Matron Cope written on her uniform, said kindly as she shuffled some papers by the foot of the bed. "Lieutenant Colonel McCarty has other things he needs to attend to, but you can get back to training under his command in less than a week if you heal up well."

"That's quite alright Matron," Emmett shook his head, not once taking his eyes from Rosalie, who was valiantly fighting to keep her own eyes open and focused on his face. They were so cute together, and once Rose was better I really was going to make her dish the dirt. His next words confirmed my thoughts and I almost sighed at how adorable the whole situation was, without the getting hit with a paintball part of course.

"As long as it is not a problem with you Matron, I'd be happy to stay with Rosalie until she wakes up."

"Suit yourself," she said, sounding like it didn't matter to her either way. It probably didn't and, whilst to me it was hopelessly romantic and I couldn't wait to find out everything that had happened between them, she had no reason to think anything untoward of his words. She bustled out in the hall that we had come from less than ten minutes ago and came back quickly with a straight backed, hard-looking wooden chair. 'Emmett' took it from her with a polite smile and a nod and sat himself down beside Rose's bed, close enough that he could reach out and rest the tips of his fingers on top of one of her hands that lay protectively over her bruised stomach as she slipped into a hopefully painless sleep. She sighed at the contact and turned her head almost imperceptibly towards him. He must have noticed this too because he grinned happily, before trying to cover it up as he looked up to see me watching them intently.

I winked cheekily at him as he blushed like Rose had earlier, then took that as my cue to leave and headed to the door, then back down the hall that lead out of the infirmary building. I could hear, rather than see Bella follow me and could only assume that our team leader/boss man, whatever the hell his name was, had come with us too. He hadn't said a word or moved away from the doorway since we had entered the room so it went to reason he would leave when we did.

The next thing I knew, Bella had slipped her hand into mine and I looked back to see a mischievous grin plastered on her face. I giggled in response and my face must have mirrored hers because soon she was giggling too.

"That was easily…" I said, and she finished my thought for me, as if she could read my mind.

"The cutest thing I have ever seen in my life." Then we both burst into hysterical laughed as we burst out of the double doors and headed back to the dirt bike and the rest of our day's training.

Because I was looking back at Bella, and laughing so hard my cheeks hurt, I didn't notice the person walking towards me until I walked straight into his chest…

**AN:**

**Hope some of you can get back into this, and will continue to read because I have so many great ideas to put into this story. More chapters soon… hopefully. Again, I'm so sorry for being MIA for so long.**

**Charlotte-xoxo**

**PS. Cliff-hanger! Whoop!**


End file.
